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THE    HISTORIC    JESUS 


THE  HISTORIC  JESUS 


BEING  THE  ELLIOTT  LECTURES 
DELIVERED  IN  THE  WESTERN  THEO- 
LOGICAL    SEMINARY,     PITTSBURG,    PA.i 


/BY   YhE    rev. 

DAVID  ^MITH,     M.A.,    D.D. 

Professor  ok  Theology  in  the  McCrea 
Magee  College,  Londonderry 


HODDER    AND    STOUGHTON 
NEW    YORK    AND    LONDON 


TO    THE 

PROFESSORS    AND    STUDENTS 

OF    THE    WESTERN    THEOLOGICAL    SEMINARY,     PITTSBURG, 

AND   ALL   THE   FRIENDS   AVHO    MADE    MY   FIRST   VISIT 

TO   AMERICA    A    PLEASANT    EXPERIENCE 

AND    A    FRAGRANT    MEMORY 


PREFACE 

THE  question  of  the  historicity  of  the 
evangelic  narratives  is  more  than  aca- 
demic ;  and  so  I  have  endeavoured  to  eschew 
technicaUties  and  make  my  argument  intelligible 
to  those  who,  unversed  in  the  science  of  criti- 
cism, are  yet  troubled  by  its  pronouncements. 
In  truth  it  is  less  an  argument  than  a  personal 
confession.  It  indicates  the  path  by  which  my 
own  mind  has  travelled,  and  my  hope  is  that 
it  may  help  others  to  a  braver  faith  in  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ. 

D.  s. 
4,  The  College, 

Londonderry. 


CONTENTS 


FAQE 
THE   CRITICAL   CONTENTION  .  .  .  .1 


II 

APOCRYPHAL   IDEALISATIONS  .  .  .  .23 

III 

RIVALS   OF   THE   EVANGELIC  JESUS  .  .  .43 

IV 

THE   SELF-EVIDENCE   OF  THE   EVANGELIC  PORTRAITURE  .      61 

V 

THE   EVIDENCE   OF  EXPERIENCE        .  .  .  .95 


A   LATIN   HYMN  ......    119 

INDEXES  .......    121 


THE  CRITICAL  CONTENTION 


'  They  have  taken  away  my  Lord,  and  I  know  not  where 
they  have  laid  Him  ' 

St.  Mary  Magdai-ene. 


THE  CRITICAL  CONTENTION 

AT  the  outset  of  his  work  on  The  Agreement 
of  the  Evangelists,  ere  addressing  himself 
to  his  proper  task  of  discussing  the  jesus  known 
discrepancies  of  the  fourfold  narra-  °^Jo^o^^ 
tive,  St.  Augustine  deals  with  a  pre-  believers. 
liminary  and  more  vital  problem.  '  It  is  needful,' 
he  says,  '  first  to  discuss  that  question  which  is 
wont  to  disturb  not  a  few  :  why  the  Lord  wrote 
nothing  Himself,  so  that  it  is  necessary  to 
believe  the  writings  of  others  regarding  Him. 
This  is  said  by  those,  mostly  pagans,  who  dare 
not  impeach  or  blaspheme  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
Himself,  and  attribute  to  Him  a  most  excellent 
wisdom — only,  however,  as  a  man ;  but  His 
disciples,  they  say,  attributed  to  their  Master 
more  than  He  was  ;  insomuch  that  they  said 
He  was  the  Son  of  God,  and  the  Word  of  God 
by  which  all  things   were   made,  and  He   and 

The  Historic  Jesus  3 


4  THE  CRITICAL  CONTENTION 

God  the  Father  were  one,  and  all  else  of  Hke 
sort  m  the  apostolic  literature  whereby  we  have 
learned  that  He  should  be  worshipped  as  God 
one  with  the  Father.  For  they  deem  that  He 
should  be  honoured  as  a  most  wise  man  ;  but 
that  He  should  be  worshipped  as  God  they 
deny.' 

And  their  contention  was  by  no  means  irra- 
tional. What  they  conceived  to  have  happened 
ggj.Q_  in  the  case  of  our  Lord  has  frequently 

worship.  happened  in  the  evolution  of  religion. 
'  How  the  man  Odin,'  says  Carlyle,*  '  came  to 
be  considered  a  god,  the  chief  god  ? — that  surely 
is  a  question  which  nobody  would  wish  to 
dogmatise  upon.  I  have  said,  his  people  knew 
no  limits  to  their  admiration  of  him ;  they  had 
as  yet  no  scale  to  measure  admiration  by. 
Fancy  your  own  generous  heart 's-love  of  some 
greatest  man  expanding  till  it  transcended  all 
bounds,  till  it  filled  and  overflowed  the  whole 
field  of  your  thought !  .  .  .  And  then  consider 
what  mere  Time  will  do  in  such  cases  ;  how  if  a 
man  was  great  while  living,  he  becomes  tenfold 
greater  when  dead.  What  an  enormous  earner a- 
obscura  magnifier  is  Tradition  !     How  a  thing 

*  On  Heroes :  The  Hero  as  Divinity. 


THE   CRITICAL   CONTENTION  5 

grows  in  the  human  Memory,  in  the  human 
Imagination,  when  love,  worship  and  all  that 
lies  in  the  human  Heart,  is  there  to  encourage 
it.  And  in  the  darkness,  in  the  entire  ignorance ; 
without  date  or  document,  no  book,  no  Arundel- 
marble  ;  only  here  and  there  some  dumb  monu- 
mental cairn.  Why,  in  thirty  or  forty  years, 
were  there  no  books,  any  great  man  would 
grow  mythic^  the  contemporaries  who  had  seen 
him  being  once  all  dead.' 

And  so  it  happened  in  the  case  of  Jesus 
according  to  those  early  critics,  '  mostly  pagans,' 
who  were  no  wanton  blasphemers  but 

*-  ,         ^         The  evangelic 

earnest  men,  willing  to  do  all  justice  picture  not 

.  portraiture 

to  Christianity  yet  refusing  to  recog-  but 

^        idealisation. 

nise  a  miracle  where  a  natural  expla- 
nation would  suffice.  It  was  a  reasonable  con- 
tention, and  its  reasonableness  is  proved  by  this 
— that  it  has  held  its  ground  and  is  maintained 
in  our  own  day  with  stronger  cogency  and 
greater  persuasiveness.  The  Jesus  of  the 
Gospels,  it  is  alleged,  is  not  the  Jesus  of 
history.  The  picture  which  the  Evangelists 
have  painted  is  not  portraiture  but  idealisation. 
It  depicts  our  Lord,  not  as  He  actually  was  in 
the  days  of  His  flesh,  but  as  He  appeared  to 


6  THE  CRITICAL  CONTENTION 

a  later  generation,  glorified   by  reverence   and 
magnified  by  superstition. 

The  transformation  was  effected  mainly  by 
the  operation  of  two  causes.  One  was  the 
Two  trans  Mcssianic  expectation  of  the  Jewish 
forming         people.     'The    Messianic   time,'   says 

influences:        ^       ^  ...  "J 

Strauss,  anticipating  much  that  has 

(l)the  .  . 

Messianic        siucc   been  Written,"^   '  was   expected 

expectation; 

generally  as  a  time  of  signs  and 
wonders.  The  eyes  of  the  blind  should  be 
opened,  the  ears  of  the  deaf  should  be  un- 
stopped, the  lame  should  leap,  and  the  tongue 
of  the  dumb  extol  God.f  This,  in  the  first 
instance  quite  figuratively  intended,  was  soon 
understood  literally,|  and  hereby  the  figure  of 
the  Messiah,  ere  ever  Jesus  appeared,  was 
always  sketched  more  in  detail.  Thus  many 
of  the  tales  regarding  Jesus  had  not  to  be  newly 
invented,  but  had  only  to  be  transferred  to  Jesus 
from  the  figure  of  the  INIessiah  living  in  the 
people's  hope,  into  which,  with  manifold  trans- 
formations, they  had  come  from  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, and  to  be  harmonised  with  his  personality 

*  Leb.  Jes.,  Einleit.,  p.  92  f. 

t  Isa.  XXXV.  5  f.,  xlii.  7  ;    cf.  xxxii.  3,  4. 

X  Matt.  xi.  5  ;  Luke  vii.  21  f. 


THE  CRITICAL  CONTENTION  7 

and  teaching.  And  so  it  could  never  have  been 
easier  for  the  man  who  introduced  such  a  trait 
into  the  description  of  Jesus,  to  beheve  himself 
that  it  actually  belonged  to  him,  in  accordance 
with  the  following  syllogism  :  So  and  so  must 
have  happened  to  the  Messiah  ;  Jesus  was  the 
Messiah  ;  therefore  that  will  have  happened  to 
him.'  Given  the  belief  that  Jesus  was  the 
Messiah,  then  it  was  inevitable  that  the 
JNIessianic  programme  should  be  assigned  to 
Him.  Whatever  the  JMessiah  was  to  be  or  do, 
that  Jesus  must  have  been  and  done.  And 
thus  prophecy  became  history. 

But  even  apart  from  the  Messianic  Hope  the 
transformation  was  inevitable.     The  Evangelists 
wrote  at  least  a  generation  after  the  (2)  tue  view- 
events   which   they  record,  and  they  ^Ser^ 
beheld  and  interpreted  the  past  in  the  generation, 
light  of  the  present.     And  what  followed  ?     It 
has    been    stated   thus :    '  To   realise    that  the 
central   materials   of  the  gospels   were   mainly 
drawn  up  and  collected  during  the  three  or  four 
decades  which  followed  the  death  of  Jesus,  and 
that  the  gospels  themselves  were  not  composed 
until  the  period  65-105  ;   to  realise  these  facts 
will  show — (i.)  that  the  gospels  are  not  purely 


8  THE  CRITICAL  CONTENTION 

objective  records,  no  mere  chronicles  of  pure 
crude  fact,  or  of  speeches  preserved  verbatim; 
(ii.)  that  they  were  compiled  in  and  for  an  age 
when  the  church  required  Christ  not  as  a 
memory  so  much  as  a  religious  standard,  and 
when  it  reverenced  him  as  an  authority  for  its 
ideas  and  usages  ;  (iii.)  that  they  reflect  current 
interests  and  feelings,  and  are  shaped  by  the 
experience  and  for  the  circumstances  of  the 
church;  (iv.)  that  their  conceptions  of  Christ 
and  Christianity  are  also  moulded  to  some 
extent  by  the  activity  and  expansion  of  the 
church  between  30  and  60,  by  its  tradition, 
oral  and  written,  and  by  its  teaching,  especially 
that  of  Paul.'* 

Thus  the  task  of  criticism  is  to  work  back 
from  the  evangelic  idealisation  to  the  historic 
The  task  of  reality,  and  discover  the  actual  Jesus 
criticism.  ^y  divesting  Him  of  those  alien  wrap- 
pings, unearthing  Him  from  those  legendary 
accumulations,  and  clearing  away  the  mist 
which  has  gathered  round  Him  and  hidden 
Him  from  view.  And  the  question  is :  What 
remains  after  the  work  has  been  accom- 
plished ? 

*  Moffatt,  Hist.  N.  T.,  p.  45,  n.  2. 


THE   CRITICAL  CONTENTION  9 

It  has  been  answered  with  frank  precision  by 
Professor  Schmiedel  of  Zurich  in  his  cataclysmic 
article  on  the  Gospels  in  the  Encyclo-  .^^^  ^^^^  ^^ 
pcedia  Bihlica.     There  the  test  of  his-  ^historicity. 
toricity  is  first  of  all  defined  on  this  wise :  '  When 
a  profane  historian  finds  before  him  a  historical 
document   which   testifies   to   the  worship  of  a 
hero    unknown   to   other   sources,   he    attaches 
first  and  foremost  importance  to  those  features 
which  cannot  be  deduced  from  the  fact  of  this 
worship,   and    he   does   so   on   the   simple   and 
sufficient  ground  that  they  would  not  be  found 
in  this  source  unless  the  author  had  met  with 
them  as  fixed  data  of  tradition.'     And  what  is 
the  residuum  of  historic  material  after  ^j^g  j^igtoric 
the    application   of    this   test  to   the  residuum. 
evangelic   narratives  ?     Only  nine   fragments,  a 
series   of   negations,   emphatic   repudiations    of 
supernatural  attributes  and  miraculous  powers : 

1.  Our  Lord's  answer  to  the  Young  Ruler : 
'  Why  callest  thou  Me  good  ?  None  is  good 
save  one,  even  God.'  * 

2.  His  saying  to  the  Pharisees  that  'blas- 
phemy against  the  Son  of  Man  can  be  for- 
given.' t 

*  Mark  x.  17  f.  t  Matt.  xii.  31  f. 

The  Historic  Jems  3 


10  THE  CRITICAL  CONTENTION 

3.  The  supposition  of  His  relations  that  He 
was  *  beside  Himself.'^ 

4.  His  saying :  '  Of  that  day  or  that  hour 
knoweth  no  one,  not  even  the  angels  in  heaven, 
neither  the  Son,  but  the  Father.'  t 

5.  His  cry  on  the  Cross  :  '  My  God,  My  God, 
why  hast  Thou  forsaken  Me  ? '  | 

6.  His  refusal  of  a  sign  to  that  generation.  § 

7.  The  statement  that  He  '  was  able  to  do  no 
mighty  work  (save  heaUng  a  few  sick  folk)  in 
Nazareth,  and  marvelled  at  the  unbelief  of  its 
people.' II 

8.  His  warning  to  the  disciples  after  the 
miracles  of  the  loaves  and  fishes,1I  which  proves, 
it  is  alleged,  that  the  feeding  of  the  multitudes 
was  not  a  historical  occurrence,  but  a  parable 
having  this  as  its  point,  that  the  bread  with 
which  one  man  in  the  wilderness  was  able  to 
feed  a  vast  multitude  signifies  the  teaching 
with  which  he  satisfied  their  souls. 

9.  His  answer  to  the  messengers  of  John  the 

*  Mark  iii.  21.  Keim  {Jes.  von  Naz.,  iii.  p.  181,  E,T.),  on 
the  contrary,  discredits  this  passage,  and  suggests  that  it 
may  be  derived  from  2  Cor.  v.   13  ;  Acts  xxv.  24-. 

t  Mark  xiii.  32.  J  Mark  xv.  34. 

§  Mark  viii.  12.  ||  Mark  vi.  5  f. 

H  Mark  viii.  14-21. 


THE  CRITICAL  CONTENTION  11 

Baptist :  ^  '  The  blind  receive  their  sight,  and 
the  lame  walk,  the  lepers  are  cleansed,  and  the 
deaf  hear,  and  the  dead  are  raised  up,  and  the 
poor  have  the  Gospel  preached  to  them ' — 
the  last  clause  counteracting  the  preceding 
enumeration  and  proving  that  Jesus  was  speak- 
ing not  of  the  physically  but  of  the  spiritually 
blind,  lame,  leprous,  deaf,  dead. 

These  fragments  Schmiedel  pronounces  'abso- 
lutely credible,'  'the  foundation-pillars  for  a 
truly  scientific  life  of  Jesus.'  And  this  is  all 
that  is  left — this  shattered  remnant  of  that 
precious  heritage,  the  Evangelic  Tradition,  '  the 
fairest  memorial,'  as  Weizsacker  terms  it,t 
'  which  the  primitive  Church  has  raised  in  its 
own  honour.' 

It  is  hardly  possible  to  exaggerate  the 
seriousness  of  the  issue.  The  foundation  of 
the  Church's   faith   and   hope   is   her 

The  seriouB- 

Lord  Jesus   Christ,  according  to  the  nessofthe 

issue. 

ancient    definition,^    '  God    of    God, 
Light  of  Light,  very  God   of  very  God ;   be- 
gotten,  not  made ;    of   one   essence   with   the 

*  Matt.  xi.  5  ;  Luke  vii.  22. 
t   Urchristenthu7n,  p.  696. 
X  Creed  of  Constantinople. 


12  THE   CRITICAL  CONTENTION 

Father ;  through  whom  all  things  were  made ; 
who  for  us  men  and  for  our  salvation  descended 
from  heaven,  and  was  made  flesh  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  and  the  Virgin  Mary,  and  became  man  ; 
was  crucified  for  us  under  Pontius  Pilate,  and 
suffered,  and  was  buried,  and  rose  again  on  the 
third  day,  according  to  the  Scriptures ;  and 
ascended  into  heaven,  and  sitteth  at  the  right 
hand  of  the  Father;  and  cometh  again  with 
glory  to  judge  quick  and  dead :  of  whose 
Kingdom  there  shall  be  no  end.'  All  this  she 
believes  on  the  testimony  of  the  Evangelists  ; 
and  if  it  be  proved  that  their  testimony  is  a 
dream,  then  her  faith  is  whistled  down  the 
wind.  '  Christ,  it  is  true,'  says  Bishop  Mar- 
tensen,*  '  is  not  present  in  the  Scriptures  alone  ; 
it  is  true,  the  image  of  Christ  lives  in  a  manner 
relatively  independent  of  Scripture,  in  the  heart 
of  the  Church,  and  in  the  heart  of  each  indi- 
vidual believer ;  but  the  inward  Christ  of  tlie 
heart  presupposes  the  Christ  manifested  in 
history,  and  without  the  latter  soon  fades  into 
a  mystic  cloud.  The  manifold  representations 
of  Christ  which  exist  in  the  Christian  Church 
as  a  whole,  in  the  various  confessions  and  sects, 

*  Christian  Dogmatics,  pp.  239  f. 


THE  CRITICAL  CONTENTION  13 

in  the  various  forms  of  Christian  art  and  science, 
all  spring  from  the  one  grand  fundamental  form 
which  is  sketched  in  the  Gospels ;  and  they 
must  all  be  judged  and  tested  thereby.  If  we 
had  not  such  a  representation,  no  really  essential 
feature  of  which  is  absent  or  incorrect ;  if  Christ 
were  simply  the  half-apocryphal  person  to  which 
one-sided  critics  love  to  reduce  Him,  by  en- 
veloping Him  in  an  impenetrable  mist ;  we 
must  give  up  speaking  of  a  Christian  revela- 
tion in  the  sense  that  Christ  Himself  is  its 
fundamental  feature.' 

It  has,  however,  been  maintained  that  the 
disaster  is  not  inevitable.  A  way  of  escape 
has  been  sought  along  the  line  of  Green-sway 
the  Hegelian  philosophy ;  and  by  no  °^  escape 
one  has  it  been  more  persuasively  commended 
than  by  that  brilliant  teacher,  the  late  Mr. 
T.  H.  Green  of  Oxford,  the  prototype  of 
Langham  in  Mrs.  Humphry  AVard's  Robert 
Elsmere. 

His  argument   is  that  it  matters  not  at   all 
whether  the  evangelic  portraiture   of  Jesus  be 
historical.     In  point  of  fact  it  is  not  g^^iencyof 
historical.     It  is  a  beautiful  ideal,  the  *^®  ^^^^'^' 
creation  partly  of  St.  Paul,  but  still   more  of 


14  THE  CRITICAL  CONTENTION 

one  even  greater — '  the  writer  whom  the  church 
calls  St.  John.'  '  More,  probably,  than  two 
generations  after  St.  Paul  had  gone  to  his 
rest,  there  arose  a  disciple,  whose  very  name 
we  know  not  (for  he  sought  not  his  own  glory 
and  preferred  to  hide  it  under  the  repute  of 
another),  who  gave  that  final  spiritual  inter- 
pretation to  the  person  of  Clirist,  which  has 
for  ever  taken  it  out  of  the  region  of  history 
and  of  the  doubts  that  surround  all  past  events, 
to  fix  it  in  the  purified  conscience  as  the 
immanent  God.'  *  Wherefore  inquire  after  the 
historic  Jesus  ?  It  is  sufficient  that  this  perfect 
ideal  of  the  relation  between  God  and  man  has 
dawned  on  the  world,  and  it  matters  neither 
whence  it  came  nor  how  it  arose. 

The   thought  which   Green  would 

immateriality  . 

of  historic       here  enforce  is  expressed  by  Brown- 

evideuce.  .  .  .,.  . 

ing  m  these  familiar  lines :  t 

'  Ye  know  there  needs  no  second  proof  with  good 
Gained  for  our  flesh  from  any  eartlily  som-ce  : 
We  might  go  freezing,  ages, — give  us  fire, 
Thereafter  we  judge  fire  at  its  full  worth, 
And  guard  it  safe  through  every  chance,  ye  know  ! 


*  Green's  Works,  iii.  p.  242. 
t  A  Death  m  the  Desert. 


THE  CRITICAL  CONTENTION  15 

That  fable  of  Prometheus  and  his  theft, 
How  mortals  gained  Jove's  fiery  flower,  grows  old 
(I  have  been  used  to  hear  the  pagans  own) 
And  out  of  mind  ;  bvit  fire,  howe'er  its  birth. 
Here  is  it,  precious  to  the  sophist  now 
Who  laughs  the  myth  of  ^schylus  to  scorn. 
As  precious  to  those  satyrs  of  his  play, 
Who  touched  it  in  gay  wonder  at  the  thing.' 

It  is  sufficient  that  the  idea  is  hei:e ;  and  indeed 
it  is  an  impure  sort  of  faith  which  concerns  itself 
about  historic  evidence.  '  It  is  not  on  any 
estimate  of  evidence,  correct  or  incorrect,  that 
our  true  hoUness  can  depend.  Neither  if  we 
beheve  certain  documents  to  be  genuine  and 
authentic,  can  we  be  the  better,  nor  if  we 
beheve  not,  the  worse.  There  is  thus  an  inner 
contradiction  in  that  conception  of  faith  which 
makes  it  a  state  of  mind  involving  peace  with 
God  and  love  towards  all  men,  and  at  the  same 
time  makes  its  object  that  historical  work  of 
Christ,  of  which  our  knowledge  depends  on 
evidence  of  uncertain  origin  and  value.'  * 

According  to  this  argument  it  is  in  the  idea 
alone  that  all  the  value  lies.     The 

Objections : 

history  which    enshrines   it    is    mere 
scaffolding,   a  needless  encumbrance  once  the 

*  Green's  Works,  iii.  p.  260. 


/ 


16  THE   CRITICAL  CONTENTION 

structure  is  complete.  It  may  seem  an  easy 
and  effective  solution,  facilitating  our  disem- 
barrassment and  lifting  our  faith  to  a  secure 
and  serene  vantage-ground ;  yet  it  is  beset  by 
insurmountable  difficulties. 

One   is   that  it  imputes  to  the  Apostles   an 
\/  alien  attitude,  and  an  attitude,  more- 

(1)  the 

Apostles         over,  which  they  expressly  repudiate. 

built  upon 

a  historic        Christianity  was   for   them   no   mere 
idea.     It  rested  on  a  historic  basis. 
It  is  true  that  St.   Paul  says  to  the  Corin- 
thians that,  '  though  he  had  known  Christ  after 
the  flesh,  yet  now  he  knew  Him  so 
no  more';"^  but  this  means  that  Christ 
was  for  him  more  than  a  historic  personage.    He 
was  the  Living  Lord — 

'  No  dead  fact  stranded  on  the  shore 
Of  the  oblivious  years  ; — 

'  But  warm,  sweet,  tender,  even  yet 
A  present  help  is  he  ; 
And  faith  has  still  its  Olivet, 
And  love  its  Galilee.' 

He  was  far  from  rejecting  the  historic  basis  or 
regarding  it  as  unimportant.      What  does  he 

*  2  Cor.  V.  16. 


THE  CRITICAL  CONTENTION  17 

say  when  he  recapitulates  to  the  Corinthians 
the  Gospel  which  he  had  preached  unto  them, 
which  also  they  had  received  ;  wherein  also  they 
stood,  by  which  also  they  were  saved  ?  '  I 
delivered  unto  you  first  of  all  that  which  also 
I  received,  how  that  Christ  died  for  our  sins 
according  to  the  Scriptures ;  and  that  He  was 
buried  ;  and  that  He  hath  been  raised  on  the 
third  day  according  to  the  Scriptures  ;  and  that 
He  appeared  to  Cephas  ;  then  to  the  Twelve ; 
then  He  appeared  to  above  five  hundred 
brethren  at  once,  of  whom  the  greater  part 
remain  until  now,  but  some  are  fallen  asleep ; 
then  He  appeared  to  James ;  then  to  all  the 
Apostles ;  and  last  of  all,  as  unto  one  born  out 
of  due  time.  He  appeared  to  me  also.'  *  The 
Death  and  the  Resurrection  of  Jesus  were  the 
theme  of  St.  Paul's  preaching,  and  these  were 
historic  facts  attested  by  the  evidence  of  eye-  / 
witnesses.  It  is  simply  flying  in  the  face  of  ^ 
his  explicit  testimony  to  assert  that  'there  is 
no  reason  to  think  that  he  knew  anything  of 
the  details  of  the  life  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth.' 

And   as    for   St.   John,   his   theme   is   not   a 
subjective   idea   of  the   immanence   of  God  in 

*  1  Cor.  XV.  3-8. 
The  Historic  Jesua  4 


y 


18  THE  CRITICAL  CONTENTION 

man,  but  an  objective  revelation  enacted  on  the 
stage  of  history.  'The  Word,'  he  says  in  his 
Prologue,  '  was  made  flesh,  and  dwelt 
among  us  (and  we  beheld  His  glory, 
glory  as  of  the  Only  Begotten  from  the  Father), 
full  of  grace  and  truth.'  And  he  begins  his 
first  Epistle,  which  is,  in  Lightfoot's  phrase, 
a  'commendatory  postscript'  to  his  Gospel, 
with  an  elaborate  assurance  that  the  Incarna- 
tion was  an  actual  and  historic  fact.  '  That 
which  was  from  the  beginning,  that  which  we 
have  heard,  that  which  we  have  seen  with  our 
eyes,  and  our  hands  handled  concerning  the 
Word  of  life  (and  the  life  was  manifested,  and 
we  have  seen,  and  bear  witness,  and  declare 
unto  you  the  life,  the  eternal  life,  which  was 
with  the  Father,  and  was  manifested  unto  us) ; 
that  which  we  have  seen  and  heard  declare  we 
unto  you  also,  that  ye  also  may  have  fellowship 
"with  us.' 

Thus,  while  faith  was  indeed  for  St.  Paul 
and  St.  John  '  a  state  of  mind  involving  peace 
with  God  and  love  towards  all  men,'  it  rested 
for  them  both  on  'the  historical  work  of 
Christ.' 
Moreover,  in  his  attempt  to  save  Christianity 


THE   CRITICAL  CONTENTION  19 

Green  sacrifices  it.  He  resolves  it  into  a  meta- 
physical idea,  'the  worship,  through  love  and 
knowledge,  of  God  as  a  spiritual  (2)  a  chris- 
being  immanent  in  the  moral  life  of  Seafwithout 
man.'^  This,  however,  is  not  Ciiris-  g^^pei^'^ta 
tianity,  nor  is  it  even  religion.  'A  P^^iosopny, 
religion,'  says  Coleridge,t  'that  is  a  true  re- 
ligion, must  consist  of  ideas  and  facts  both ; 
not  of  ideas  alone  without  facts,  for  then  it 
would  be  mere  Philosophy ; — nor  of  facts  alone 
without  ideas  of  which  these  facts  are  the 
symbols,  or  out  of  which  they  arise,  or  upon 
which  they  are  grounded,  for  then  it  would  be 
mere  History.' 

The  truth  is  that  the  Christianity  of  Green 
is  a  mere  phantom,  and  whatever  be  its  specu- 
lative validity,  it  has  nothing  of  the  , . 

,    .  inefiacacious 

efficacy  of  a  Gospel.     '  Logicians,  it  with  tue 

,  ,  •  1    X  1  multitude. 

has   been   said, |   'may  reason   about 
abstractions.     But  the  great  mass  of  men  must 
have  images.  .  .  .  The  history  of  the  Jews  is 
the  record  of  a  continued  struggle  between  pure 
Theism,    supported  by  the  most  terrible  sanc- 

*  Green's  Works,  p.  215. 

t  Table  Talk,  December  3,  1831. 

X  Macaulay,  Essay  on  Milton, 


20  THE   CRITICAL  CONTENTION 

tions,  and  the  strangely  fascinating  desire  of 
having  some  visible  and  tangible  object  of 
adoration.  Perhaps  none  of  the  secondary 
causes  which  Gibbon  has  assigned  for  the 
rapidity  with  which  Christianity  spread  over 
the  world,  while  Judaism  scarcely  ever  acquired 
a  proselyte,  operated  more  powerfully  than  this 
feeling.  God,  the  uncreated,  the  incomprehen- 
sible, the  invisible,  attracted  few  worshippers. 
A  philosopher  might  admire  so  noble  a  con- 
ception :  but  the  crowd  turned  away  in  disgust 
from  words  which  presented  no  image  to  their 
minds.  It  was  before  Deity  embodied  in  a 
human  form,  walking  among  men,  partaking 
of  their  infirmities,  leaning  on  their  bosoms, 
weeping  over  their  graves,  slumbering  in  the 
manger,  bleeding  on  the  cross,  that  the  pre- 
judices of  the  Synagogue,  and  the  doubts  of 
the  Academy,  and  the  pride  of  the  Portico, 
and  the  fasces  of  the  Lictor,  and  the 
swords  of  thirty  legions,  were  humbled  in 
the   dust.' 


'  And  so  the  Word  had  breath,  and  wrought 
With  human  hands  the  creed  of  creeds 
In  loveUness  of  perfect  deeds, 
More  strong  than  all  poetic  thought : 


THE   CRITICAL  CONTENTION  21 

'Which  he  may  read  that  binds  the  sheaf, 
Or  builds  the  house,  or  digs  the  grave. 
Or  those  Avild  eyes  that  watch  the  wave 
In  roarings  round  the  coral  reef.' 


APOCRYPHAL    IDEALISATIONS 


Look  here,  upon  this  picture,  and  on  this.' 

Shakspeare. 


II 

APOCRYPHAL  IDEALISATIONS 

THE  critical  contention  with  which  we 
have  to  do  is  that  the  evangehc  por- 
traiture of  Jesus  is  unhistorical.  It  Recapituia- 
depicts  Him,  not  as  He  actually  was  *^°^- 
in  the  days  of  His  flesh,  but  as  He  appeared 
to  the  faith  of  the  Church  in  the  succeeding 
generation ;  and  all  His  worshipful  attributes 
are  merely  so  much  Aherglaube.  And  we  have 
seen  how  ruinous  is  the  issue.  If  that  conten- 
tion be  allowed,  then  the  Church  has  been  bereft 
of  her  Lord.  Jesus,  so  far  as  He  can  be  known 
— if  indeed  He  can  be  known  at  all — was  no 
Di\dne  Saviour ;  and  all  down  the  centuries 
the  Church  has  been  lavishing  her  faith  and 
adoration  on  a  creation  of  her  own  fancy. 

And  there  is  no  evasion  of  the  issue.  The 
sole  foundation  of  the  Faith  is  the  Historic 
Jesus,  and  the  Gospels  are  the  only  sources  of 

The  Historic  Jesus  5  25 


J 


26  APOCRYPHAL  IDEALISATIONS 

our  knowledge  of  Him.  If  they  fail  us,  He  is 
irrecoverably  lost. 

Our  need,  then,  is  to  reassure  ourselves  of  the 
trustworthiness  of  the  evangelic  records,  that  we 
Our  line  of  ^1^7  ^ujoy  the  Certainty  that  their 
comlmrSon  testimony  is  true,  exhibiting  our  Lord 
?iSi°Stuai  ^^  H^  appeared  to  the  eyes  of  His 
Idealisations,  contemporaries ;  and  to  this  end  my 
purpose  is,  not  to  deal  with  the  intricate  and 
fascinating  problems  of  New  Testament  Criti- 
cism, but  to  pursue  a  line  of  argument  which, 
it  seems  to  me,  is  at  once  simple  and  effective, 
instituting  a  comparison  between  the  evangelic 
portraiture  as  it  stands  and  the  pictures  which 
the  devout  imagination  of  the  second  century 
produced.  And  when  we  have  seen  what 
idealisation  has  actually  accomplished,  it  will 
then  appear  whether  it  be  conceivable  that  the 
evangelic  portraiture  is  a  product  of  the  same 
process. 

For  this  purpose  there  lies  to  hand  a  suf- 
ficiency of  material.  Our  Evangelists  are  not, 
occasion  of  '^  ^hc  proper  sense,  biographers  of 
idealisation.  Jesus,  forasmucli  as  they  do  not 
narrate  the  fuU  story  of  His  earthly  life.  St. 
Mark  and  St.  John  begin  with   His   manifes- 


APOCRYPHAL  IDEALISATIONS  27 

tation  as  the  Messiah,  and  narrate  His  brief 
ministry  of  only  three  years'  duration  ;  and  as 
for  St.  INIatthew  and  St.  Luke,  they  begin 
indeed  with  the  story  of  His  Birth,  but  there- 
after, save  for  that  soUtary  incident  which  the 
dihgence  of  the  latter  has  rescued  from  oblivion 
— the  Holy  Child's  visit  to  Jerusalem  during 
the  season  of  the  Passover* — there  is  a  long 
hiatus  of  thirty  years  in  their  narratives,  and 
they  resume  where  St.  Mark  and  St.  Jolin 
begin. 

It  was   inevitable   that   the   mystery   of  the 
Silent  Years  should  excite  curiosity,  and  in  the 
complete  absence  of  information  the  itspreva- 
myth-forming  genius  of  the  primitive  prStive^^ 
Church  found  its  opportunity.     It  set  °^^'^^- 
to  work  very  early.     St.  Luke  has  told  us  that,  v 
ere  he  composed  his  Gospel,  many  others  had 
essayed   the   task ;    and   it   was    their    lack    of 
discrimination   that   moved   him   to  investigate 
the   Evangelic  Tradition  and  publish  an  accu- 
rate  version   of  it.  t     And   from   the  Pastoral 
Epistles   to  Timothy  it  appears   how  seriously 
the    Tradition   was   imperilled    in    those    days. 
It  was   in  danger,  on  the  one  hand,  of  being 

*  Luke  ii.  41-51.  t  Luke  i.  1-4. 


28  APOCRYPHAL  IDEALISATIONS 

mutilated  by  heretical  teachers,  '  consenting  not 
to  sound  words,  even  those  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  and  to  the  doctrine  which  is  according 
to  godliness,  puffed  up,  knowing  nothing,  but 
doting  about  questionings  and  logomachies ' ;  * 
and,  on  the  other  hand,  of  being  corrupted  by 
an  admixture  of  '  profane  and  oldvvifish  myths.'  t 
And  it  was  this  twofold  danger  that  necessitated 
the  committal  of  the  precious  Tradition,  '  the 
genuine  deposit,'  J  to  a  permanent  and  authori- 
tative record.  § 

Of  this  profuse  literature,  innocent  in  its 
^^Q  intention  yet  subversive  of  the  very 

specimens:  foundations  of  the  Faith,  two  inte- 
resting specimens  have  survived. 

One  is  the  apocryphal  Gospel  known  as  the 
Protevangelium  Jacobi.  It  is  the  story  of  Mary, 
the  IMother  of  our  Lord,  and  it  pro- 
evangeiium  fesscs  to  be  the  work  of  His  brother 
'  James.     Of  course  the  latter  claim  is 

groundless,  nevertheless  the  book  is  demon- 
strably very  ancient.  In  his  commentary  on 
St.  Matthew  (c.  a.d.  246)  Origen  refers  to  it 
in   conjunction  with    the    Gospel  according  to 

*  1  Tim.  vi.  3,  4.  f  1  Tim.  iv.  7.  J  2  Tim.  i.  14. 

§  Cf.  The  Days  of  His  Flesh,  Introd.,  pp.  xv  f. 


APOCRYPHAL  IDEALISATIONS  29 

Pete?',  plainly  ranking  them  together  in  notoriety 
and  authority.*  And  the  Gospel  accoi^ding  to 
Peter  is  of  high  antiquity.  In  his  letter  to  the 
Church  of  Rhossos,  Serapion,  Bishop  of  Antioch 
(a.d.  190-203),  defends  the  sanction  whickJie 
had  given  to  the  reading  of  it  in  the  Church, 
inasmuch  as,  notwithstanding  Doketic  additions, 
most  of  it  belonged  to  the  right  doctrine  of  the 
Saviour,  f  Since  time  was  required  for  its  cir- 
culation and  recognition,  this  testimony  carries 
the  Gospel  accordirig  to  Peter,  and  with  it  our 
Protevangeliiim,  well  into  the  second  century. 
Further,  the  Protevaiigelium  is  thrice  quoted, 
as  though  possessed  of  full  authority,  by  St. 
Justin  Martyr  —  twice  in  his  Dialogue  with 
Trypho   (c.   a.d.    136),  J  and   again  in  his  first 

*  X.  17  :  TOVQ  ^k  ade\(povQ  'Irjcrov  (parrl  rivec  eivai,  ek 
Trapa^otreojQ  opfxojfievoi  rov  tTriyeypafinivov  Kara  Herpoy  evay- 
yeXiov  r)  rije  (3il3\ov  'luKcjfiov,  v'lovg  'Iw(t//0  t/c  irpoTepag  yvvaiKoe 
(rvy(OKT]KviaQ  avru  irpo  rrJQ  MapiaQ. 

t  Euseb.,  H.  E.,  vi.  12. 

\  Dial.  78  (Jesus  born  in  a  cave  near  Bethlehem)  :  en-ei^ 
^loj(T))(p  ovK  £i-)^£v  ev  Tt]  KWfXT]  tKeivT]  TTOv  naTaXvcTai,  iy 
(TTTijXaiu)  TLvl  (TVPeyyvQ  tFjq  KU)fir]Q  KariXvcre'  ical  rore  avrwy 
uyrojv  £K£i  etetokel  j/  M.apia  rov  Xpifrroy.  Cf.  Protev.  xviii. 
Dial.  100  :  x^P^^  Xajjovcra  M.apia  //  irapQivoQ  evayyeXi^ofxiyov 
Tal3pirjX  ayyeXov.  Cf.  Protev.  xii.  2  :  Xf^p^v  Ik  Xafiovtra 
Mapiajx  cnriei  Trpog  'EXiira/Ser. 


30  APOCRYPHAL  IDEALISATIONS 

Apology,  addressed  to  Antoninus  Pius  (c.  a.d. 
146).*  It  could  hardly  have  acquired  such 
recognition  in  less  than  a  generation,  and  this 
carries  it  back  to  the  beginning  of  the  second 
century,  f 

The   other  book  which  claims  our  attention 
is   the   Evanp-elium    Thomce,   and   its 

(2)  Evan-  ^'       -^  1       u     'i 

gfiiium  antiquity  can   scarcely  be  less,  since 

it  is  quoted,  though  in  terms  of  repro- 
bation, by  St.  Irenseus  in  his  great  work  on 
Heresies  (a.d.  182-188).  | 

Whatever  be  the  precise  date  of  these  two 
apocrypha,  they  originated  in  the  period  which, 
it  is  contended,  produced  the  evangelic  por- 
traiture of  Jesus  ;  and  it  is  thus  legitimate  to 
compare  their  representation  with  it,  and  judge 
whether  they  belong  to  the  same  order  in 
respect  of  historicity. 

*  Apol,  i.  33  :  l^ov  (TvXXt]\pei  kv  yatrrpl  it:  Hyev/j-aroQ  'Ayiov, 
Kai  rehEi  vioj',  kuI  'Yiog  'Yxpicrrov  K\r]Qii(TeTai'  koI  KoXicreiQ  to 
ovofjia  'It}(tovi''  avrog  yap  awtrei  tov  Xaoy  avrov  cnro  riov  ujiapTtiJv 
avTwv,  Similarly  Protev.  xi.  (l)  substitutes  Ylog  'YxpiiTTOv  for 
Yioe  Qeov  (Luke  i.  35),  and  (2)  includes  in  the  Annunciation 
to  Mary  the  angel's  words  to  Joseph  (Matt.  i.  21).  It  is 
evident  that  St.  Justin  had  the  Protevangelium  before  him. 

t  Cf.  Tischendorf,  Ev.  Apocr.,  pp.  xii  &.,  xxxviii  f.  ;  Zahn, 
N.  T.  Kan.,  i.  914  f.,  ii.  774  ff. 

X  I.  xiii.  1.     Cf.  Ev.  Thorn,  vi. 


APOCRYPHAL  IDEALISATIONS  31 

The  Protevangelium  is  a  Tendeiizschrift,  and 
it   is   dominated  by  a  twofold  apologetic   pur- 
pose, being  directed,  in  the  first  place,  Twofold 
against  the  Doketic  heresy  which  was  p^^fe^X?-^ 
maintained  by  Cerinthus,  the  contem-  ^^'"""  •' 
porary  of  the  Apostle  John  at  Ephesus,  ^  that 
Jesus  was  the  son  of  Joseph  and  Mary  by  ordi- 
nary   generation,    and,    moreover,   against    the 
Jewish   calumny  that   He  was  the  illegitimate 
offspring  of  Mary  and  the  soldier  Panthera.  f 

It  meets  the  former  by  representing  Joseph 
as  a  widower  of  great  age  when  he  was  en- 
trusted with  the  guardianship  of  JVIary.  against 
From  infancy  she  had  been  a  ward  of  JenSof 
the  Temple,  and  she  was  not  married  virgin  Birth ; 
to  Joseph  but  committed  to  his  care  when  she 
attained  the  age  of  twelve  years,  '  lest  she  should 
defile  the  Sanctuary  of  the  Lord.'  He  was 
reluctant  to  undertake  the  charge.  '  I  have 
sons,'  he  remonstrated,  '  and  I  am  an  old  man, 
and  she  is  a  girl.  I  shall  become  a  laughing- 
stock to  the  children  of  Israel.'  However,  he 
was  overborne  by  the  insistence  of  the  priests 
and  their  threat  of  judgment  should  he  disobey ; 
and  so  he  conveyed  her  to  his  house,  and  went 

*  Iren.  I.  xxi.  t  Oiig.,  C.  Cels.  i.  28,  32. 


/ 


32  APOCRYPHAL  IDEALISATIONS 

abroad  in  prosecution  of  his  calling,  and  saw 
her  no  more  for  six  months.  '  Behold,'  he  said 
to  her  at  his  departure,  '  I  received  thee  from 
the  Temple  of  the  Lord ;  and  now  I  leave  thee 
in  my  house  and  go  away  to  work  at  my  build- 
ings, and  I  shall  come  back  to  thee.  The  Lord 
will  keep  thee  safe.' 

And  as  for  the  Jewish  calumny,  this  is  met 
by  attesting  the  perpetual  virginity  of  Mary. 
against  It    is    related,    with    somewhat    un- 

caiumniation  savoury  elaboration,  how  she  brought 
of  Mary.  forth  the  Holy  Child  salva  virginitate, 
and  Salome's  hand  was  blasted  when  she  would 
not  credit  the  midwife's  story  without  such 
tangible  evidence  as  Thomas  craved  of  the 
reality  of  the  Resurrection.*  And  Mary's  vir- 
ginity remained,  for  the  brethren  of  Jesus  were 
not  her  children  but  the  fruit  of  Joseph's 
former  marriage. 

All  this  stands  in  striking  contrast  to  the 
stories  of  the  Birth  of  Jesus  in  the  Gospels 
contrast  with  according  to  St.  Matthew  and  St. 
the  Gospels.  L^kc.  The  distinction  of  the  latter 
lies  in  their  fearlessness,  their  freedom  from 
apologetic    solicitude.      The   Evangelists    must 

*  John  XX.  25. 


APOCRYPHAL  IDEALISATIONS  33 

have  been  aware  what  would  be  said,  what 
actually  had  been  and  was  being  said,  of 
the  V^irgin  Birth ;  yet  they  evince  no  con- 
cern to  safeguard  the  story  and  obviate  mis- 
construction. They  report  it  simply  as  they 
had  it  from  the  lips  of  their  informants,  who 
would  seem  from  internal  evidence  to  have 
been  no  other  than  Joseph  and  JNIary ;  and 
they  never  attempt  to  buttress  it  by  legendary 
accretions.  There  is  not  a  touch  of  the  gro- 
tesque in  their  narratives. 

The  explanation  is  certainly  not  that  they 
were  superior  to  their  apocryphal  rival  in 
literary  instinct  and  aesthetic  discrimi-  Reason  of  the 
nation,  and  disdained  the  'profane  and  ^^^®^^'^°®- 
oldwifish  myths  '  in  which  he  revelled,  superiority  of 
For  in  truth  he  was  no  mean  artist,  tiie  Gospels, 
There  is  hardly  anything  in  early  literature 
more  impressive  than  the  passage  where  he 
describes  how  at  the  moment  of  the  Saviour's 
birth  a  hush  fell  upon  creation,  and  all  things, 
animate  and  inanimate,  paused  as  in  amazement 
and  adoration.  JNIary  had  found  a  shelter,  and 
Joseph  had  gone  forth  in  quest  of  succour,  when 
suddenly  the  wonder  befell.  '  I  walked,'  he 
says,  'and  I   walked  not.     And   I   looked   up 

The  Historic  Jesus  6 


J 


34  APOCRYPHAL  IDEALISATIONS 

to  the  air,  and  I  saw  the  air  astonied.  And 
I  looked  up  to  the  vault  of  heaven,  and  I  saw 
it  standing  still  and  the  fowls  of  heaven  keeping 
quiet.  And  I  looked  upon  the  earth,  and  I 
saw  a  dish  set  and  labourers  at  their  meat,  and 
their  hands  were  in  the  dish ;  and  they  that 
were  chewing  chewed  not,  and  they  that  were 
lifting  their  morsel  brought  it  not  up,  and  they 
that  were  putting  it  to  their  mouth  put  it 
not,  but  all  their  faces  were  looking  up.  And 
I  saw  sheep  being  driven,  and  the  sheep  stood 
still ;  and  the  shepherd  lifted  his  hand  to  smite 
them,  and  his  hand  stopped  up.  And  I  looked 
upon  the  stream  of  the  river,  and  I  saw  the 
mouths  of  the  kids  laid  unto  it  and  not  drink- 
ing. And  all  things  for  the  moment  were 
driven  from  their  course.' 

This  is  a  fine  imagination,  worthy  of  Dante 

or   Raphael,   and   comparable  with   that  other 

legend   that,  when  the   Saviour  died 

but  their  ,         ^  i  •  • 

historic  on  the   Cross,  every  green   thmg  m 

faithfulness.        .  i  i        •   i  it.  ■     f> 

the  world  withered.  It  was  not  lor 
lack  of  art  that  the  writer  failed,  but  rather  for 
this — that  he  attempted  the  impossible  task  of 
dealing  imaginatively  with  the  supernatural. 
The    fiction    of   that    ethereal    personage,  the 


APOCRYPHAL  IDEALISATIONS  35 

White  Lady  of  Avenel,  is  a  fatal  blot  upon 
the  tale  of  The  Monastery,  and  Sir  Walter 
acknowledged  the  justice  of  the  disfavour  with 
which  it  was  received,  and  pleaded  only  the 
extreme  difficulty  of  managing  the  machinery 
of  the  supernatural.*  It  is  indeed  an  impossible 
achievement,  and  as  Sir  Walter  failed,  so  did 
the  author  of  the  Protevangelium  before  him. 
And  how  did  it  come  to  pass  that,  where  others 
with  every  resource  of  genius  and  art  have  dis- 
astrously failed,  our  Evangelists  have  so  con- 
spicuously succeeded  ?  The  reason  is  simply 
this — that  they  were  not  creators  but  historians  ; 
they  were  not  dealing  imaginatively  with  the 
supernatural  but  reporting  an  actual  manifesta- 
tion, 17  Tov  "SiOJTripog  rifx(l)v  'Irjcou  Xpiarov  ivaapKOg 
oiKOvofiia. 

Turn  now  to  the  Evangelium  Thomce.     It  is 
a  tissue   of  Doketic   legends   of  the 

.  .  Doketism  of 

Child   Jesus,  and  it  depicts  Him  as  Evangelium 
a  veritable   Wu7iderkind. 

*  Cf.  Horace's  counsel  concerning  the  Deus  ex  machina 
U'  P-  191  f-) : 

'Nee  deus  intersit  nisi  dignus  vindice  nodus 
Incident.' 


36  APOCRYPHAL  IDEALISATIONS 

(1)  Even  in  those  early  days  He  was  en- 
(1)  miracu-  dowed  with  miraculous  power,  and 
I)?«ie°^^'^  the  miracles  which  He  wrought  were 
Holy  chUd ;     ^f  ^}^g  most  Startling  sort. 

One  Sabbath  Day,  when  He  was  five  years 
of  age.  He  was  playing  by  a  stream,  and  He 
gathered  the  running  water  into  pools  and 
cleared  them  of  mud  by  a  word  of  command. 
Then  He  made  clay  and  moulded  twelve 
sparrows.  His  playmates  went  and  told  Joseph 
how  He  was  profaning  the  Sabbath,  and  Joseph 
came  and  remonstrated  with  Him  ;  whereupon 
the  Child  clapped  His  hands  and  shouted  to 
the  sparrows  '  Away  ! '  and  off  they  flew  twitter- 
ing. The  son  of  Annas  the  Scribe  was  standing 
by,  and  he  took  a  branch  and  broke  down  the 
pools.  '  Villain  ! '  cried  Jesus,  '  impious  and 
foolish !  wherein  did  the  pools  and  the  water 
harm  thee  ?  Behold,  now,  thou  also  shalt  be 
withered  like  a  tree,  and  never  bear  leaves  nor 
root  nor  fruit.'  And  immediately  the  child  was 
all  withered. 
V  Again,  as  He  was  passing  through  a  village. 

He  was  jostled  by  a  boy.  This  angered  Him, 
and  He  said :  '  Thou  shalt  not  go  thy  way ' ; 
and  the  boy  fell  down  and  died. 


APOCRYPHAL  IDEALISATIONS  37 

Such,  according  to  this  apocryphal  legend- 
monger,  was  the  Boy  Jesus — not  the  sweet 
child  of  whom  we  catch  a  glimpse  in  St. 
Luke's  narrative,  '  subject  unto  His  parents ' 
and  '  advancing  in  favour  with  God  and  men,'  * 
but  lawless,  passionate,  and  vindictive,  a  terror 
to  the  neighbours.  'With  such  a  child,'  they 
said  to  Joseph,  '  thou  canst  not  dwell  with  us 
in  the  village  ;  or  else  teach  Him  to  bless  and 
not  to  curse  ;  for  He  kills  our  children.'  But 
He  scorned  Joseph's  admonition  ;  '  and  no  one 
durst  anger  Him,  lest  He  should  curse  him, 
and  he  should  be  maimed.'  'And  Joseph  was 
grieved,  and  charged  His  mother :  "  Let  Him 
not  go  out  of  doors,  because  those  that  anger 
Him  die." '  Of  course  this  representation  stands 
in  glaring  contrast  to  the  evangelic  narratives. 
It  is  in  protest  against  such  contemporary 
legends  that  St.  John  observes  so  pointedly 
that  the  miracle  at  Cana  was  the  first  which  our 
Lord  ever  wrought.!  And  there  is  a  wide  dif- 
ference between  these  legendary  miracles  and  the 
wonderful  works  which,  according  to  our  Evan- 
gelists, He  wrought  during   the   years   of  His 

*  Luke  ii.  51,  52.  +  John  ii.  11. 


38  APOCRYPHAL  IDEALISATIONS 

ministry,    when    He    went    about    continually- 
doing  good, 


7 


'  the  shadow  of  Him  Love, 
The  speech  of  Him  soft  Music,  and  His  step 
A  Benediction.' 


The  evangelic  miracles  were  always  works  of 
mercy  and  compassion ;  and  whatever  we  may 
think  of  their  theoretical  possibility,  our  hearts 
approve  them.  We  would  like  them  to  be 
true,  and  they  'have  our  vote  to  be  so  if 
they  can.' 

(2)  As  He  appears  in  the  Evangelium  Thomce, 

the  Holy  Child  was  endowed  with  superhuman 

wisdom.     He  was  omniscient  in  His 

(2)  Hi3 

superhuman  very  cradlc.  At  the  age  of  five  years 
He  was  sent  to  school,  and  His 
teacher,  Zacchasus,  repeated  the  Alphabet  to 
Him  from  Alpha  to  Omega.  '  Thou  hypo- 
crite I '  cried  the  Child,  '  when  thou  knowest 
not  the  Alpha  according  to  its  nature,  how 
dost  thou  teach  others  the  Beta?'  And  then 
He  began  to  catechise  the  teacher,  and  ex- 
pounded to  him  the  mystical  significance  of 
Alpha,  after  the  manner  of  the  Jewish  sect  of 
the   Cabbalists    and    the    Gnostic    sect    of  the 


APOCRYPHAL  IDEALISATIONS  39 

Marcosians  as  they  appear  on  the  pages  of  St. 
Irenseus.  Zacchseus  was  confounded.  '  Take 
Him  away,  I  beseech  thee,  brother  Joseph.  I 
cannot  bear  the  austerity  of  His  look.  This 
Child  is  not  earth-born.  Belike  He  hath  been 
born  ere  the  creation  of  the  world.' 

At  the  age  of  six  years  another  teacher  took 
Him  in  hand,  and  proposed  to  instruct  Him 
first  in  Greek  and  then  in  Hebrew.  Jesus, 
however,  would  answer  none  of  his  questions. 
'  If  thou  art  really  a  teacher,'  He  said,  '  and  if 
thou  knowest  the  letters  well,  tell  Me  the  force 
of  the  Alpha,  and  I  will  tell  thee  that  of  the 
Beta.'  The  exasperated  teacher  struck  Him  on 
the  head,  and  Jesus  cursed  him  and  laid  him 
dead  on  the  ground. 

Another  teacher,  a  friend  of  Joseph's,  under 
took  the  perilous  task  of  His  tuition.  '  Bring 
Him  to  me,'  he  said ;  '  perhaps  I  may  be  able 
by  dint  of  flattery  to  teach  Him  the  letters.' 
Jesus  went  to  the  school,  and,  finding  a  book 
on  the  desk,  took  it  and  would  not  read  its 
letters,  but  He  opened  His  mouth  and  spake 
by  the  Holy  Spirit  and  taught  the  Law  to  the 
bystanders.  '  I  received  the  Child,'  exclaimed 
the  astonished  teacher,  *as  a  disciple,  but  He 


J 


40  APOCRYPHAL  IDEALISATIONS 

is  full  of  much  grace  and  wisdom ! '  The 
flattery  succeeded.  The  Child  laughed.  '  For 
thy  sake,'  said  He,  'the  other  teacher  who  was 
stricken  shall  be  healed.' 

Of  course  all  this  is  rank  Doketisni,  and  it 
is  a  denial  of  the  Incarnation.  Our  Lord  in 
the  days  of  His  flesh  was  not  God  walking  the 
earth  in  the  semblance  of  a  man ;  He  was  the 
Eternal  Son  of  God  become  man,  and  'in  all 
things  made  like  unto  His  brethren.'*  He 
was  like  them  in  weakness  and  weariness,  and 
in  nescience  too ;  and  in  His  human  childhood 
He  'advanced  in  wisdom  and  stature' — a 
normal  growth  at  once  physical  and  intel- 
lectual. 

And  now  consider  the  bearing  of  this  on 
the  problem  of  the  historicity  of  the  Evangelic 
Jesus.  The  point  is  that  the  apocry- 
historicity  of  phal  picture  is  precisely  the  sort  of 
idealisation  which  the  imagination  of 
those  days  must  have  produced.  And  this  for 
two  reasons.  The  first  is  that  it  was  a  doctrine 
of  Jewish  theology  that  the  Messiah  would  be 
a  miracle-worker,   and   would   thus   attest   His 

*  Heb.  ii.  17. 


APOCRYPHAL  IDEALISATIONS  41 

Messiahship.  It  was  on  this  account  that  the 
Pharisees  were  continually  challenging  our  Lord 
to  show  them  a  sign,  that  they  might  believe. 
And  thus  it  was  inevitable  that  the  legend- 
creators,  partly  with  a  deliberate  apologetic 
purpose,  partly  by  the  unconscious  instinct  of 
faith,  should  crowd  His  life  with  miracles,  the 
more  stupendous  the  better.  And  then  there 
was  the  prevailing  conception  of  God,  Jewish 
and  Pagan  alike,  as  jealous  and  vindictive. 
You  remember  the  Greek  motive  for  humility  ? 
'  The  Deity,'  said  Solon,  *  '  is  all  envious  and 
troublous,'  grudging  that  mortals  should  be  too 
happy,  and,  when  they  recklessly  exulted, 
smiting  and  crushing  them.  Therefore  wisdom 
lay  in  walking  softly,  lest  one  should  provoke 
the  divine  envy.  And  similar  was  the  Jewish 
conception.  It  was  perilous  to  have  to  do  with 
Jehovah.  Think  how  the  people  were  warned 
off  from  Sinai  and  bounds  were  set  about  the 
mount,  '  lest  the  Lord  should  break  forth  upon 
them.'  t  And  there  is  the  grim  story  of  Uzzah 
who,  when  the  Ark  was  being  fetched  home 
from  Kirjath-jearim,  put  forth  his  hand  to 
steady  it  on  the  cart,  'for  the  oxen  shook  it. 

*  Herod,  i.  32.  t  Exod.  xix.  21-24. 

The  Historic  Jesus  7 


42  APOCRYPHAL  IDEALISATIONS 

And  the  anger  of  the  Lord  was  kindled  against 
Uzzah ;  and  God  smote  him  there  for  his  error ; 
and  there  he  died  by  the  Ark  of  God.'  *  And 
you  remember  the  Rabbinical  phrase  for 
canonicity?  The  canonical  books  were  said 
to  '  defile  the  hands,'  the  idea  being  that  they 
were  sacred,  and  handling  them  lightly  was  an 
impiety  involving  ceremonial  uncleanness  and 
demanding  ceremonial  ablution,  f  It  was  in 
accordance  with  this  principle  that  the  Pharisees 
inferred  from  our  Lord's  miracles  of  mercy  that 
He  was  in  league  with  the  Devil.  Had  they 
been  wrought  by  the  power  of  God,  they  must 
needs  have  been  terrible. 

Such  was  the  prevailing  conception  of  God, 
and  the  evangelic  conception  was  novel,  un- 
dreamed of,  incredible.  And  this  is  the  argu- 
ment :  If  the  evangelic  portraiture  of  Jesus 
were  a  second-century  idealisation,  it  would  be 
in  no  wise  what  it  is  but  precisely  the  reverse. 
The  Incarnate  Son  of  God  would  have  been 
conceived,  not  as  a  gentle,  gracious  Friend  of 
Sinners,  but  as  a  terrible  and  wrathful  Avenger. 
And  it  is  even  so  that  He  actually  appears  in 
those  indubitable  idealisations. 

*  2  Sam.  vi.  6-11. 

t  Cf.  Robertson  Smith,  0.  T.  in  Jew.  Ch.,  p.  173. 


RIVALS  OF  THE  EVANGELIC  JESUS 


TTOv  vvv  T)]Q  'EXXacoc  o  TV(pog  ',  TTOv  Tu>v  'Adr{va)v  TO  orofia  ', 
irov  Tb)v  (piXoaoipMV  6  Xijpog  ',  o  utto  TaXiXalciQ,  6  cnro  Hrfdaai^a, 
o  ciypoiKog,  ■Kai'Twr  EKtirtjJv  TTEpityivETO. 

St.  Chbysostom,  In  Act.  Apost.  Horn.  IV. 


Ill 

RIVALS  OF  THE  EVANGELIC  JESUS 

FIIOJM  those  two  apocrypha,  the  Protevan- 
gelium  Jacobi  and  the  Evangelium  Thomce, 
we  hav^e  learned  what  the  faith  of  the  Recapituia- 
primitive  Church  did  in  the  way  of  *^°°' 
ideahsing  the  historic  Jesus ;  and  it  seems  an 
inevitable  inference  that  the  evangelic  por- 
traiture cannot  possibly  be  a  product  of  the 
same  process  :  it  is  so  unlike  what  the  myth- 
forming  genius  of  those  days  actually  created 
and,  in  view  of  its  presuppositions,  could  not 
help  creating.  And  now  let  us  pursue  the 
argument  along  another  line. 

At  the  outset  of  its  career  Christianity  was 
laughed  to  scorn  by  the  intellectual  world.  In 
the  phrase  of  the  Apostle,  *  it  was  '  unto  the 

*  1  Cor.  i.  23.  Cf.  the  sneer  of  the  philosopher  Celsus 
(Orig.,  C.  Cels.  iii.  44)  at  the  terms  of  admission  to  the 
Church  :    '  Let  no  educated  person  approach,  no  wise,  no 

d5 


46    RIVALS  OF  THE  EVANGELIC  JESUS 

Greeks  foolishness.'  Presently,  however,  this 
attitude  was  abandoned.  Ere  the  middle  of 
Two  pagan  the  second  century  Christianity  had 
toeariy^  proved  itself  no  mere  folly  to  be 
Christianity:  j^ughed  at,  but  a  force  to  be  reckoned 
with;  and  it  was  then  dealt  with  after  two 
methods.      One   was   argument,   and 

(1)  argument,  .  i  i  • 

the  protagonist  was  the  philosopher 
Celsus,  whose  clever  attack,  The  True  Word, 
reinforced  the  Faith  by  evoking  Origen's  bril- 
liant  apology.      The   other  method   was   more 

subtle  and  elusive.    It  was  the  method 

(2)  rivalry. 

to  which  St.  Augustine  alludes  in  that 
passage  which  engaged  us  at  the  outset.  It  did 
not  openly  assail  Christianity,  but  sought  rather 
to  undermine  it  by  proving  that  whatever  was 
true  and  beautiful  in  it  was  found  also  no  less 
but  even  more  in  Paganism.  By  a  just  instinct 
those  champions  of  the  ancient  order  recognised 
that  there  is  no  Christianity  apart  from  Christ, 
and  they  sought  to  compass  its  destruction  by 
robbing  Him  of  His  unique  distinction.  Un- 
able and,  perhaps,  unwilling  to  deny  His  excel- 
lence,  they  set    themselves    not  to   depreciate 

prudent ;  but  if  any  be  illiterate,  if  any  be  foolish,  if  any  be 
uneducated,  if  any  be  a  babe,  let  him  boldly  come.' 


RIVALS  OF  THE  EVANGELIC  JESUS    47 

but  to  match  it.  They  painted  ideal  pictures 
of  prophets  of  their  own,  and  exhibited  those 
rivals  of  Jesus,  making  no  mention  of  Him  but 
allowing  the  obvious  comparison  to  present 
itself  and  suggest  the  intended  inference.  They 
said  nothing,  but  their  meaning  was :  '  See  I 
here  is  something  nobler  and  wiser  than  your 
Galilean.' 

Of  this    method   there   are   extant  Twospeci- 

mens  of  the 

two   conspicuous  examples — Luciau's  latter. 
Li^   of  Demonax    and    Philostratus'   Life   of 
Apolloiiius  of  Tyana. 

Lucian,  that  brilliant  man  of  letters,  the  last 
of  the  great  Greek  writers,  was  born  at  Samo- 
sata  on  the  Euphrates  during  the  Lucian's 
reign  of  Trajan  (a.d.  98-117)  ;  and,  Oewonax. 
according  to  the  Byzantine  lexicographer, 
Suidas,  he  followed  the  legal  profession  for 
a  time  at  Syrian  Antioch,  but,  failing  in  it, 
he  abandoned  it  for  literature.  Suidas  says 
that    he  was    designated   '  the   Blas- 

.       Lucian's 

phemer,'   and   that    he   was    torn  in  attitude  to 
pieces  by  dogs  for  his  madness  against 
the  Truth.     This   notion   of  him  is  traditional 
and  still  prevails,  but  it  is  far  from  just.     In 


48    RIVALS   OF    THE  EVANGELIC  JESUS 

those  days  the  ancient  rehgions  were  at  a  sorry- 
pass.      '  The   various  modes   of  worship   which 
prevailed   in  the   Roman  world,'  says   Gibbon 
in   one   of  his   pregnant   epigrams,  *  '  were   all 
regarded  by  the  people  as  equally  true ;  by  the 
philosopher,  as  equally  false  ;  and  by  the  magis- 
trate, as  equally  useful.'     Religion  was  a  mass 
of  ridiculous   and  too  often   immoral   supersti- 
tions,  the  jest   and   scorn    of  reasonable  men ; 
and  it  is  to  the  credit  of  Lucian  that  he  would 
fain  have  rid  humanity  of  the  baleful  incubus. 
It  was  a  blunder,  but   it   was   no   crime,  that, 
imperfectly    acquainted    with    Christianity,    he 
regarded  it   as   merely  the  latest  phase  of  the 
ever-shifting  phantasmagoria  and  pelted  it  with 
the  artillery  of  his  satire. 

His  ideal  wise  man  is  the  eclectic  philosopher 
Demonax,  who  was  born  of  good  parentage  in 
The  Greek  ^^^  island  of  Cyprus,  and  taught  at 
spirit.  Athens  towards  the  close  of  the  first 

century  and  well  into  the  second ;  and  in  every 
feature  of  his  portraiture  one  recognises  a  tacit 
comparison  with  '  that  gibbeted  sophist,'  as 
Lucian   elsewhere   terms    our    Lord,  f      What 

*  Decline  and  Fall,  chap.  ii. 
t  De  Mort.  Peregr.  13, 


RIVALS  OF  THE  EVANGELIC  JESUS    49 

was  it  in  Jesus  that  chiefly  offended  the  Greek 
spirit  ?  It  was  His  gravity,  His  constancy  of 
purpose  and  His  strenuous  devotion  thereto, 
so  aUen  from  the  evrpairsXia*  of  the  jocund 
Greeks,  so  contrary  to  their  maxim  jurjStv  ayav, 
ne  quid  nimis,  which  Socrates  called  'a  young 
man's  virtue.'  t  He  took  life  so  seriously, 
always,  as  the  Greek  proverb  puts  it,  '  carrying 
things  to  the  sweating-point,' |  and  never  dis- 
arming opposition  by  a  timely  jest.  It  was 
this  temper  that  involved  Him  in  so  many 
embarrassments,  and  finally  brought  Him  to 
the  Cross. 

To  Lucian  this  seemed  the  extremity  of 
folly,  and  he  set  in  contrast  the  sanity  of  his 
Demonax,  an  eclectic  philosopher  who  ^^  ^^^^^ 
addicted  himself  to  neither  of  the  ^seman: 
dominant  and  antagonistic  schools  of  his  day 
— the  Stoic  and  the  Epicurean — but  appro- 
priated the  good  of  both,  and  regarded  the 
follies  of  men  with  an  easy  and  amused 
tolerance.  '  He  did  not,'  says  his  biographer, 
'  indulge  in  the  irony  of  Socrates,  but  hiis  con- 

*  The  word  translated  '  jesting '  in  Eph.  v.  4. 
+  Diog.  Laert.  ii.  32. 
X  Marc.  Antonin.  i.  16  :  ewe  ilpojTOQ. 
The  Historic  Jesus  8 


50    RIVALS  OF  THE   EVANGELIC  JESUS 

versations  were  full  of  Attic  grace,  insomuch 
that,  when  those  who  had  held  intercourse 
with  him  went  away,  they  neither  despised 
him  as  vulgar  nor  fled  from  the  churlishness 
of  his  rebukes,  but  were  transported  by  merri- 
ment, and  were  far  more  orderly  and  cheerful, 
and  had  good  hope  for  the  future.  Never  was 
he  seen  crying  aloud  or  straining  unduly  or 
irritated,  even  when  censure  was  needed  ;  but, 
while  he  was  down  upon  the  sins,  he  had  indul- 
gence for  the  sinners,  and  thought  it  meet  to 
take  example  from  the  physicians,  who,  while 
they  heal  the  sicknesses,  show  no  anger  against 
the  sick ;  for  he  deemed  it  the  part  of  a  god 
or  a  godlike  man  to  correct  the  error.  .  .  .  And 
such  aid  had  he  from  the  Graces  and  Aphrodite 
herself  in  doing  and  saying  all  this  that,  as  the 
comedy  has  it,  "  Persuasion  sate  ever  on  his 
lips." ' 

In  illustration  of   this   quality  in    his    hero 

Lucian  produces  a  collection  of  his  bons  mots 

— caustic   criticisms,  like  his   remark 

his  sanity, 

on  a  futile  disputation  between  two 
philosophers,  that  'one  of  them  was  milking  a 
he-goat,  and  the  other  holding  the  pail ' ;  or 
shrewd  precepts,  like  his   answer  to  a  newly- 


RIVALS  OF  THE  EVANGELIC  JESUS    51 

appointed  provincial  governor  who  asked  him 
how  he  would  govern  best :  '  Never  lose  your 
temper ;  talk  little ;  and  hear  much.'  These 
things  make  excellent  reading,  but  it  is  not  for 
their  own  sake  that  Lucian  quotes  them.  Their 
use  is  to  point  the  underlying  contrast  between 
Jesus  and  His  rival.  They  exemplify  the  wise 
man's  sanity.  He  was  no  ascetic,  glorifying 
poverty,  privation,  persecution.  He  appreciated 
the  good  things  of  life,  and  held  that  if  a  man 
were  wise,  he  had  the  better  right  to  enjoy 
them.  '  Do  you  eat  sweet  cakes  ? '  he  was 
once  asked.  '  Yes,'  he  replied  ;  '  do  you  sup- 
pose it  is  for  the  fools  that  the  bees  store  their 
honeycombs  ? '  He  had  no  fancy  to  play  the 
martyr  needlessly.  Once,  when  he  was  stepping 
into  the  bath,  he  shrank  back  because  the  water 
was  too  hot,  and,  being  twitted  with  cowardice, 
he  retorted :  '  Tell  me,  was  it  for  my  country 
that  I  was  going  to  suffer  it  ? '  And  he  made 
no  preposterous  claims  to  superiority  over  the 
great  men  of  the  past.  '  Behold,'  said  Jesus, 
'a  greater  than  Solomon  is  here.'*  But  once, 
when  Demonax  visited  Olympia  and  the 
magistrates  proposed  to   erect   a  statue  in  his 

*  Matt.  xii.  42. 


52    RIVALS  OF  THE  EVANGELIC  JESUS 

V  honour,  '  On  no  account,  gentlemen,'  said  he. 
*Do  not  reproach  your  ancestors  for  not 
erecting  a  statue  either  of  Socrates  or  of 
Diogenes.' 

'  Such  was  the  manner  of  his  philosophy — 

meek,  gentle,  and  blithe ' ;  and  the  book  closes 

with   a   description   of  the  peace   of 

his  felicity.        ,  .      ,  ,  ,    ,  .  .  , 

his  latter  days  and  his  passing  hence 
— a  charming  picture  in  striking  contrast  to 
^,  the  tragic  close  of  the  Gospel  story.  '  He 
lived  for  nigh  a  hundred  years  without  sick- 
ness, without  pain,  never  troublesome  to  any 
nor  beholden  to  any,  serviceable  to  his  friends, 
never  having  made  a  single  enemy.  .  .  .  Un- 
bidden, he  would  sup  and  sleep  in  any  house 
he  passed,  the  inhabitants  accounting  that  it 
was  a  visitation  of  God  and  a  good  divinity 
had  entered  into  their  house.'  And  what  did 
Jesus  say  ?  '  The  foxes  have  holes,  and  the 
birds  of  the  air  have  nests ;  but  the  Son  of 
Man  hath  not  where  to  lay  His  head.'*  'He 
was  despised  and  rejected  of  men ;  a  man  of 
sorrows,  and  acquainted  with  grief:  and  as  one 
from  whom  men  hide  their  face  He  was 
despised,  and  we  esteemed  Him  not.'  t     When 

*  Matt.  viii.  20.  t  Isa.  liii.  3. 


RIVALS   OF  THE   EVANGELIC   JESUS    53 

Demonax  died  the  Athenians  gave  him  a  pubUc 
funeral  and  mourned  him  long  ;  and  the  stone 
seat  where  he  had  been  wont  to  rest,  they  wor- 
shipped and  wreathed  with  garlands  ;  and  philo- 
sophers carried  him  to  his  burial.  But  what  of 
Jesus  ?  *  They  plaited  a  crown  of  thorns,  and 
put  it  on  His  head,  and  a  reed  in  His  right 
hand ;  and  they  kneeled  down  before  Him, 
and  mocked  Him,  saying,  Hail,  King  of  the 
Jews  !  And  they  spat  upon  Him,  and  took 
the  reed  and  smote  Him  on  the  head.  And 
when  they  had  mocked  Him,  they  took  off 
from  Him  the  robe,  and  put  on  Him  His 
garments,  and  led  Him  away  to  crucify 
Him.'  * 

There  are  the  rival  pictures,  and  the  heart 
of  humanity  has  judged  between  Lucian  and 
the  Evangelists.  It  has  chosen  the  Man  of 
Sorrows,  and  has  found  in  Him  all  its  salva- 
tion and  all  its  desire. 


'Is  it  not  strange,  the  darkest  hour 
That  ever  dawn'd  on  sinful  earth 
Should  touch  the  heart  with  softer  power 
For  comfort,  than  an  angel's  mirth  ? ' 


*  Matt,  xxvii.  29-31. 


54    RIVALS  OF  THE  EVANGELIC  JESUS 

At  the  first,  however,  the  Man  of  Sorrows 
was  an  offence  both  to  the  Jew  and  to  the 
Greek ;  and  here  once  more  it  appears  how 
ahen  was  the  evangeHc  portraiture  from  the 
ideal  of  that  generation,  how  remote  from  its 
imagination. 

We  pass  into  a  different  and  less  wholesome 

atmosphere  when  we  turn  to  the  consideration 

of  that  other  rival  of  the  Evangelic 

Philostratus'  . 

Apoiionius  Jesus — Apollomus  of  Tyana.  Side 
by  side  with  the  literary  movement 
which  had  Lucian  for  its  most  distinguished 
representative  and  which  aimed  at  the  suppres- 
sion of  superstition,  another  movement  was  in 
progress  during  the  second  century.  Its  most 
Neo-pytha-  remarkable  phase  was  the  Neo-Pytha- 
goreanism.  gorcauism  which  arose  in  the  reign  of 
Augustus,  and  which  essayed  to  revive  the 
philosophy  of  Pythagoras  by  infusing  into  it 
the  new  Hfe  of  Oriental  theosophy.  It  is 
interesting  to  recall  how  St.  Justin  Martyr 
resorted  to  a  teacher  of  this  school  in  the 
course  of  his  long  and  fruitless  search  after 
truth  and  happiness.* 

*  Dial.  c.  Tryph.  2. 


RIVALS   OF  THE   EVANGELIC   JESUS     55 

Apollonius,  the  hero  of  the  somewhat  pon- 
derous romance  which  the  elder  Philostratus 
compiled    from    the     memoranda    of 

-VT-  •  Apollonius, 

Damis  of  Nineveh  at  the  mstance 
of  Juha  Domna,  the  Syrian  empress  of  Sep- 
timius  Severus,  was  a  Neo-Pythagorean.  The 
story  runs  that  he  was  born  in  the  same  year 
as  our  Lord  of  an  ancient  and  wealthy  family 
in  the  Cappadocian  town  of  Tyana  ;  and  his 
birth,  like  our  Lord's,  was  supernatural,  since 
he  was  an  incarnation  of  the  Egyptian  deity, 
the  changeful  Proteus.  He  studied  a  while 
at  Tarsus,  contemporary  with  Saul  the  future 
Apostle,  and  then  betook  himself  to  the  neigh- 
bouring town  of  Mgse,  where  he  acquired  a 
knowledge  of  medicine  in  the  school  of  the 
temple  of  Asklepios,  and  embraced  Pytha- 
goreanism.  On  the  death  of  his  father  he 
divided  his  inheritance  among  his  poorer  rela- 
tives and  set  out  on  his  travels.  He  visited 
India,  and  there  conversed  with  the  Brahmans 
and  was  initiated  into  their  magical  lore.  Then 
he  journeyed  westward  again,  and  visited 
Greece,  Egypt,  Rome,  and  Spain,  attended 
everywhere  by  a  band  of  disciples.  Wherever 
he  went  he  wrought  wonders  and  was  revered 


/ 


56    RIVALS  OF  THE  EVANGELIC  JESUS 

as  a  god.  He  settled  eventually  at  Ephesus, 
where  St.  John  ministered  contemporaneously, 
and  vanished  from  the  earth  at  the  age  of  nigh 
a  hundred  years,  still  hale  and  fresh  as  a  youth. 
Philostratus  no  more  than  Lucian  announces 
his  purpose  of  setting  up  a  rival  to  Jesus,  but 
„  ^^«i  «f        it  was  unmistakable  and  was  at  once 

a  nval  of 

Jesus.  perceived.     About  the  year  305  there 

appeared  an  anti- Christian  work  entitled  the 
Philalethes,  now  lost  and  known  chiefly  by  the 
replies  which  it  elicited  from  Eusebius  and 
Lactantius.  Its  author  was  Hierocles,  who  as 
a  judge  at  Nicomedia  distinguished  himself 
by  his  activity  in  Diocletian's  persecution,  and 
in  recognition  of  his  zeal  was  promoted  to  the 
governorship  of  Alexandria.  The  Philalethes 
was  an  elaborate  comparison  of  Jesus  and 
ApoUonius  and  a  demonstration  of  the  latter's 
superiority.  And  the  extravagance  was  re- 
peated by  the  English  Deist,  Charles  Blount, 
who  in  the  year  1680  published  a  translation 
of  the  first  two  books  of  the  Life  of  ApoUonius 
with  significant  annotations. 

Here  is  an  instance  of  the  method  of  this 
covert  attack  upon  our  Lord.  It  is  related 
that  during  his  sojourn  at  Rome  ApoUonius 


RIVALS   OF  THE  EVANGELIC  JESUS    57 

encountered  a  funeral  procession.  A  young 
lady  of  rank  had  died,  and  her  bridegroom 
was   attending    her    remains    to    the 

.  Examples  of 

tomb   with    a    numerous    retinue    of  tne  method : 
mourners.     Apollonius  bade  them  set  (i)  a  resurrec- 

,  .  1  1  •  1       •  •   •  1        tion  at  Borne, 

down  the  bier  and,  inquiring  the 
lady's  name,  took  her  hand,  spoke  into  her 
ear,  and  awoke  her  from  the  seeming  death. 
She  uttered  a  cry  and  returned  to  her  father's 
house,  like  Alkestis  restored  to  life  by  Herakles. 
It  is  Damis,  the  Boswell  of  Apollonius,  who 
narrates  the  incident,  and  he  adds :  '  Whether 
it  was  that  he  had  found  a  spark  of  the  soul 
in  her  which  had  escaped  the  notice  of  the 
physicians — for  it  is  said  that  drops  of  rain  fell 
and  she  exhaled  a  vapour  from  her  face — or 
that  he  had  warmed  the  extinct  soul  and  re- 
covered it,  is  beyond  the  decision  alike  of  me 
and  of  the  bystanders.'  * 

There  is  here  plainly  a  reference  to  St.  Luke's 
story  of  the  Raising  of  the  Widow's  Son  at 
Nain,t  and  the  purpose  is  to  suggest  the  un- 
reality of  our  Lord's  miracle,  after  the  manner 
of  the  rationalistic  explanation  of  the  'raisings 
from  the  dead '  as  merely  '  deUverances  from 
premature  burial.' 

*  iv.  45.  t  Luke  vii.  11-17. 

The  Historic  Jesus  9 


58    RIVALS  OF  THE  EVANGELIC  JESUS 

There  is  indeed  much  in  the  story  of  Apol- 
lonius  that  is  admirable  and  profitable.  He 
was  a  powerful  preacher,  and  discoursed  excel- 
lently to  the  thronging  multitude  on  mutual 
service  and  pubUc  spirit,"^  wisdom,  courage, 
temperance,!  and  other  goodly  virtues.  And 
his  accustomed  formula  of  prayer  is  worth 
remembering :  '  O  ye  gods,  give  me  the  things 
that  are  due.' J  But  there  is  much  also  in  the 
story  that  is  dark  and  horrible.  It  is  told  how 
a  pestilence  had  visited  Ephesus,  and  the  de- 
spairing citizens  summoned  Apol- 
demoniac  louius  from  Smyrna  to  succour  them. 
He  assembled  them,  young  and  old, 
in  the  theatre,  and  among  them  was  an 
aged  beggar,  ragged  and  foul,  with  blinking 
eyes,  carrying  a  wallet  with  a  crust  of  bread 
in  it.  ApoUonius  set  him  in  the  midst,  and 
bade  the  crowd  gather  stones  and  pelt  the 
enemy  of  the  gods.  They  hesitated,  thinking 
it  a  cruel  thing  to  kill  a  stranger  in  so  miserable 
a  plight,  and  pitying  the  wretch's  entreaties. 
ApoUonius,  however,  urged  them  on,  and  as 
the  first  stones  smote  him,  fire  flashed  from  the 

*  iv.  3,  8.  t  iv.  31. 

J  i.  11  :  w  deol,  ^oir/Te  fxoi  to.  SfsiXoueva.     Cf.  iv.  40. 


RIVALS  OF   THE  EVANGELIC  JESUS    59 

victim's  eyes  and  the  demon  was  revealed.  He 
was  promptly  despatched  and  covered  by  a 
hillock  of  stones.  *  Take  away  the  stones,'  said 
Apollonius,  '  and  discover  the  wild  beast  you 
have  killed.'  They  obeyed,  and,  behold,  the 
old  beggar  had  vanished,  and  in  his  place  lay 
the  battered  carcase  of  a  hound,  huge  as  the 
hugest  lion,  its  mouth  a-foam  like  a  mad  dog's.* 

Now  we  have  seen  what  manner  of  ideals 
sprang   up     and     flourished     in    the 

...  ,  Argriiment  for 

imagination  of  that  generation ;    and  historicity  of 

.        ,  .  .      .  .,  ,      the  Gospels. 

— here  is  the  question — is  it  possible 

to  believe  that  the  Evangelic  Jesus  is  a  growth 

of  the  same  rank  soil  ? 

It  is  told  that  after  the  death  of  the  Danish 
sculptor  Thorwaldsen  his  handiworks  were  con- 
veyed from  his  studio  at  Rome  to  the  museum 
at  Copenhagen,  and  soon  after  their  arrival 
there  sprang  up  and  bloomed  in  the  courtyard 
of  the  museum  sweet  plants  unknown  in  that 
northern  clime.  They  were  plainly  no  native 
products.  Whence  had  they  come  ?  The 
creations   of  the   master  had   been  swathed  in 

*  iv.  10.     Cf.  Ev.  Infant.  Arab,  xxxv,  where  Satan  leaves 
the  child  Judas  in  the  form  of  a  mad  dog. 


60    RIVALS  OF  THE  EVANGELIC  JESUS 

straw  and  grass  which  had  grown  on  the  Roman 
Campagna,  and  when  the  packing-cases  were 
opened  the  seeds  had  been  scattered  and  had 
taken  root.  Presently  the  flowers  appeared,  and 
there  was  no  mistaking  their  ahen  origin. 

And  it  is  even  so  with  the  evangehc  por- 
traiture. It  stands  unique,  unrivalled,  sui 
gene7iSi  amid  the  rank  growths,  the  religious, 
literary,  and  philosophic  imaginations  of  the 
second  century,  proclaiming  itself  no  earth- 
born  dream  but  a  heaven-sent  revelation.  This 
is  the  evidence  of  its  historicity — the  impossi- 
bility of  its  imagination  by  the  mind  of  that 
generation. 


THE    SELF-EVIDENCE    OF    THE 
EVANGELIC    PORTRAITURE 


'  They  dried  up  all  my  Jacob's  wells  ; 
They  broke  the  faithful  shepherd's  rod  ; 
They  blurred  the  gracious  miracles 
Which  are  the  signature  of  God. 

'  In  trouble,  then,  and  fear  I  sought 
The  Man  who  taught  in  Galilee, 
And  peace  unto  my  soul  was  brought, 
And  all  my  faith  came  back  to  me. 

'  Oh  times  of  weak  and  wavering  faith 
That  labour  pleas  in  His  defence. 
Ye  only  dim  Him  with  your  breath  : 
He  is  His  own  best  evidence.' 

Walter  C.  Smith. 


IV 


THE   SELF-EVIDENCE   OF  THE   EVANGELIC 
PORTRAITURE 

IN  the  opening  chapter  of  the  Fourth  Gospel, 
which  tells  the  story  of  the  Messiah's  manifes- 
tation unto  Israel  at  Bethany  beyond 

.  ,        .  *'  The  sight  of 

Jordan,  it  is  written  how  Philip,  in  the    Jesus  con- 

vincmg  in 

wonder  and  joy  of  his  great  discovery,  the  days  of 
sought  out  Nathanael  and  told  him 
the  glad  tidings.  'Him,'  he  cried,  jerking  it 
out  in  disjointed  eagerness,  'whom  Moses  in 
the  Law  wrote  of,  and  the  Prophets,  we  have 
found — Jesus — the  son  of  Joseph — the  man 
from  Nazareth  ! '  Nathanael  would  not  beUeve 
it.  Himself  a  Galilean,  he  knew  the  ignorance 
of  the  northern  province  and  the  evil  reputation 
of  that  rude  town.  '  Out  of  Nazareth,'  said  he 
disdainfully,  '  can  there  be  anything  good  ? ' 
Philip   eschewed   argument,   preferring  a   surer 

63 


64  THE  SELF-EVIDENCE  OF 

way.  He  answered  simply :  '  Come  and  see. 
They  went  to  Jesus,  and  presently  Nathanael's 
incredulity  was  conquered,  and  his  heart  leaped 
up  in  adoring  recognition.  '  Rabbi,'  he  cried, 
'  Thou  art  the  Son  of  God,  Thou  art  the  King 
of  Israel  I ' 

And  it  was  ever  thus  with  those  who  ap- 
proached Jesus  in  the  days  of  His  flesh.  He 
seldom  asserted  His  claims ;  He  never  argued 
them.  He  simply  manifested  Himself,  and  such 
as  had  eyes  to  see  and  hearts  to  understand 
hailed  Him  as  their  Lord.  He  was  '  His  own 
best  evidence.' 

Now  if  the  evangelic   portraiture  be  indeed 

a  faithful  delineation  of  Jesus  as  He  appeared 

to  His  contemporaries,  it  should  still 

His  por-  -  , 

traiture,  if      cast    a    spcii    upou    thosc    who    ap- 

autbentic,  i       • .  • .  i  i 

should  be  proach  it  With  open  eyes  and  un- 
sonow.  prejudiced  minds.     It  should  silence 

their  doubt  and  compel  their  faith.  The  trouble 
is  that  it  is  difficult  in  these  days  to  approach  it 
thus.  It  is  so  obscured  by  traditional  interpre- 
tations that  we  can  hardly  see  it  in  its  simple 
reality,  its  native  beauty.  Suppose  that  the 
Gospels  had  been  lost  in  early  times,  and  were 
discovered  among  those  papyri  which  are  being 


THE   EVANGELIC  PORTRAITURE        65 

unearthed  from  the  Egyptian  sand  ;  or  suppose 
that,  hke  the  old  shoemaker  in  Tolstoy's  story, 
Whei^e  Love  is,  t/iere  God  is  also,  we  had  never 
seen  them,  and  chanced  upon  a  copy  of  them 
and  read  them  for  the  first  time:  imagine  the 
surprise,  the  wonderment,  the  fascination  which 
would  take  possession  of  our  minds.  This  ex- 
perience is  denied  us ;  yet  it  is  possible  to  attain 
it  in  some  measure  by  resolutely  dismissing  the 
preoccupations  alike  of  faith  and  of  unbelief  and 
contemplating  without  prejudice  the  picture 
which  the  Evangelists  have  painted,  and  allow- 
ing it  to  produce  its  inevitable  impression  upon 
our  minds.  And  this  is  the  experiment  which 
we  shall  now  essay.  Let  us  survey  the  evan- 
gelic portraiture  of  Jesus  as  it  stands  before  us, 
and  consider  what  meets  our  eyes. 

It  is  a  singular  picture,  and  the  first  peculiarity 
which  arrests  our  attention  is  this — that  it  por- 
trays  a  sinless  man.     The  Evangelic  survey  of  tue 
Jesus   is   completely  human,  sharing  portSture- 
all  our  common  infirmities  and  restric-  ^  ^  sinless 
tions.     He  suffers  weariness,  hunger  °^*^- 
and  thirst,  and  pain.     His  knowledge  is  limited, 
and  He  confesses  its  limitations.     Once  He  ap- 

The  Historic  Jesus  10 


^j 


66  THE  SELF-EVIDENCE   OF 

proaches  a  barren  fig-tree,  expecting  to  find  fruit 
on  it ;  *  and  again  He  says  :  '  Of  that  day  or 
that  hour  knoweth  no  one,  not  even  the  angels 
in  heaven,  neither  the  Son,  but  the  Father.'  t 
And  He  is  subject  to  temptation,  being  '  in  all 
points  tempted  like  as  we  are.'|  Yet  He  is 
never  worsted  in  the  moral  conflict.  He  is  '  in 
all  points  tempted  like  as  we  are,  yet  without 
sin.'  He  passes  through  the  daily  ordeal  stain- 
less and  blameless.  He  is  among  sinners,  yet 
He  is  not  of  them. 

The  marvel  of  this  representation  is  twofold. 
On  the  one  hand,  Jesus  claimed  to  be  sinless. 
He  claims  to  Searched  by  a  multitude  of  curious 
be  sinless.  ^^^  critical  cycs.  He  issued  His 
confident  challenge  :  '  Which  of  you  convicteth 
me  of  sin  ? '  §  He  often  felt  the  pang  of  hunger, 
but  never  the  sting  of  remorse ;  He  was  often 
weary,  but  He  was  never  burdened  by  guilt ;  He 
abounded  in  prayer,  but  in  His  prayers  there 
was  no  contrition,  no  confession,  no  cry  for 
pardon.  Not  only  before  the  world  but  before 
God  He  maintained  His  rectitude  unfalteringly 
to  the  last.     With  the  shadow  of  death  closing 

*  Mark  xi.  13.  t  Mark  xiii.  32. 

J  Heb.  iv.  15.  §  John  viii.  46. 


THE  EVANGELIC   PORTRAITURE         67 

round  Him,  He  could  lift  up  His  eyes  to  heaven 
and  say :  '  I  have  glorified  Thee  on  the  earth  :  I 
have  finished  the  work  v^^hich  Thou  gavest  Me 
to  do.  .  .  .  And  now  come  I  to  Thee.'  * 

This  is  a  unique  representation.  A  lively  and 
keen  sense  of  sin  is  a  constant  characteristic  of 
the  saints.  It  is  related  of  Juan  de  Avila 
(a.d.  1500-69)  that,  as  he  lay  dying,  the  rector 
of  his  college  approached  him  and  said  :  '  What 
joy  it  must  be  to  you  to  think  of  meeting  the 
Saviour  ! '  '  Ah  ! '  said  the  saint,  '  rather  do  I 
tremble  at  the  thought  of  my  sins.'  Such  has 
ever  been  the  judgment  of  the  saints  upon 
themselves  ;  but  as  for  Jesus,  no  word  of  self- 
condemnation  ever  passed  His  lips,  no  lamenta- 
tion over  indwelling  corruption,  no  sigh  for  a 
closer  walk  with  God.  It  was  not  that  He 
closed  His  eyes  to  the  presence  of  sin  or  made 
light  of  its  guilt.  Renan,  being  asked  what  he 
made  of  sin,  answered  airily :  '  I  suppress  it ! ' 
but  that  was  not  the  manner  of  Jesus.  His 
assertion  of  the  equal  heinousness  of  the  sinful 
thought  and  the  sinful  deed  f  has  immeasurably 
extended  the  sweep  of  the  moral  law  and 
infinitely  elevated  the  standard  of  holiness.     No 

*  John  xvii.  4,  13.  f  Matt.  v.  21-30. 


68  THE   SELF-EVIDENCE  OF 

soul  has  ever  been  so  sensitive  as  His  to  the 
taint  of  impurity  ;  no  heart  has  ever  been  so 
oppressed  by  the  burden  of  the  world's  guilt. 
His  presence  was  a  rebuke  and  an  inspiration ; 
and  to  this  hour  the  very  thought  of  Him  has 
the  value  of  an  external  conscience.  His  spot- 
less life  is  a  revelation  at  once  of  the  beauty 
of  holiness  and  of  the  hideousness  of  sin. 

And  not  only  does  the  Evangelic  Jesus  claim 
to  be  sinless,  but  His  claim  was  universally 
His  claim  allowed.  It  appears  that  the  first  to 
allowed.  challenge  it  was  the  philosopher 
Celsus,  who  puts  an  indefinite  charge  in  the 
mouth  of  his  imaginary  Jew — that  Jesus  'did 
not  show  Himself  clear  of  all  evils.'*  His 
enemies  in  the  days  of  His  flesh  would  fain  have 
found  some  fault  in  Him,  and  they  searched 
Him  as  with  a  lighted  candle ;  yet  they  dis- 
covered only  one  offence  which  they  might  lay 
to  His  charge  ;  and  they  did  not  perceive  that  it 
was  in  truth  a  striking  testimony  to  His  perfect 
holiness.  They  saw  Him  mingling  freely  with 
social  outcasts,  conversing  with  them  and  going 

*  Orio".,  C.  Cels.  ii.  41  :  tn  2'  ty^raXet  rw  'Ir/ffou  o  KfXffoe  3ta 
Tov  'lovlaiKov  irpoffiJ-KOV  we  /J.))  ^et'saJTt  eavrov  ttuvt^v  dt)  Kai^ait 
Kadapevovra, 


THE   EVANGELIC  PORTRAITURE         69 

to  their  houses  and  their  tables ;  and  they  ex- 
claimed :  '  This  man  receiveth  sinners,  and 
eateth  with  them  ! '  *  It  would  have  been  no 
surprise  to  those  Scribes  and  Pharisees  had  He 
associated  with  sinners,  being  Himself  a  sinner.;^ 
Their  astonishment  was  that  He  should  do  this, 
being  Himself,  apparently,  so  pure ;  and  their 
outcry  was  a  covert  suggestion  that,  for  all 
His  seeming  holiness.  He  must  be  a  sinner  at 
heart.  The  fault,  however,  lay  not  with  Him 
but  with  themselves.  '  In  judging  the  Lord  for 
receiving  sinners,'  says  St.  Gregory,  '  it  was 
because  their  heart  was  dry  that  they  censured 
Him,  the  Fountain  of  Mercy.'  They  did  not 
understand  that  true  holiness  is  nothing  else 
than  a  great  compassion.  Such  was  the  holiness 
of  Jesus,  and  it  was  a  new  thing  on  the  earth, 
an  ideal  which  the  human  heart  had  never 
conceived.  The  Pharisee  was  the  Jewish  ideal 
of  a  holy  man,  and  it  is  an  evidence  of  the 
historicity  of  the  Evangelic  Jesus  that  He  is  so 
widely  diverse  from  that  ideal. 

It  is  very  significant  that  our  Lord's  claim  to 
sinlessness  should  have  been  thus  allowed  and 
unwittingly  attested  by  those   who   were   bent 

*  Luke  XV.  2. 


70  THE  SELF-EVIDENCE   OF 

upon  disproving  it.  Bronson  Alcott  once  said 
to  Carlyle  that  he  could  honestly  use  the  words 
of  Jesus,  '  I  and  the  Father  are  one.'  *  Yes,'  was 
the  crushing  rejoinder,  '  but  Jesus  got  the  world 
to  believe  Him.' 

Another  arresting  feature  of  the  evangelic 
portraiture  is  the  claim  which  Jesus  constantly 
2.  His  unique  ^T^^^c  and  persisted  in  to  the  last — 
relation  ^^^^  jj^  stood  in   a   uiiique   relation 

alike  toward  God  and  toxvard  man. 

He  identified  Himself  with  God.     '  Therefore 

the  Jews  sought  the  more  to  kill  Him,  because 

He  said  God  was  His  peculiar  (tStov) 

toward  God,       ^^     ,  ,  . 

Father,  makmg  Himself  equal  to 
God.'*  'He  that  receiveth  you,'  He  says  in 
His  charge  to  the  Twelve, t  'receiveth  Me,  and 
he  that  receiveth  Me  receiveth  Him  that  sent 
Me.'  He  sets  Himself  forth  as  greater  than  the 
Prophets.  They  were '  slaves ' ;  He  is  '  the  Son,' 
'the  Heir.' J  They  had  spoken  of  Him,  and 
seen  His  day  afar  off,  and  longed  to  see  Him- 
self;  and  He  announces  Himself  as  the  fulfil- 
ment of  their  prophecies  and  the  satisfaction  of 

*  John  V.  18.  +  Matt.  x.  40. 

J  Matt.  xxi.  34-38.     Cf.  Heb.  i.  2. 


THE   EVANGELIC   PORTRAITURE        71 

their  desire.*  '  Beginning  from  JNIoses  and  all 
the  Prophets,  He  interpreted  unto  them  in  all 
the  Scriptures  the  things  concerning  Him- 
self.' t 

INIoreover,  He  claimed  to  be  at  once  the 
Saviour  and  the  Judge  of  men.  He  had  '  come 
to  ffive  His  life  a  ransom  for  many ' ;  t 

toward  men. 

He  bade  the  weary  and  heavy  laden 
come  unto  Him  and  find  rest  for  their  souls ;  § 
and  He  spoke  of  a  day  when  '  the  Son  of  Man 
shall  come  in  His  glory  and  all  the  angels  with 
Him,  and  shall  sit  upon  His  throne  of  Glory, 
and  before  Him  shall  be  gathered  all  the 
nations.'  ||  How  tremendous  His  demands  on 
His  followers  !  He  points  to  the  dearest, 
tenderest,  and  most  sacred  of  human  relation- 
ships, and  claims  for  Himself  a  prior  devotion. 
'  He  that  loveth  father  or  mother  more  than 
Me  is  not  worthy  of  Me,  and  He  that  loveth 
son  or  daughter  more  than  Me  is  not  worthy 
of  Me.'H  'If  any  man  cometh  unto  Me  and 
hateth  not  his  own  father,  and  mother,  and 
wife,   and   children,   and   brethren,   and   sisters, 

*  Matt.  xiii.  16,  17.  f  Luke  xxiv.  27. 

I  Matt.  XX.  28.  §  Matt.  xi.  28,  29. 

II  Matt.  XXV.  31,  32.  U  Matt.  x.  37, 


72  THE   SELF-EVIDENCE   OF 

yea   and  his  own  life  also,  he  cannot   be   My 
disciple.'  * 

It  is  not  merely  for  God,  nor  yet  merely  for 
the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  that  He  makes  these 
stupendous  claims  :  it  is  for  Himself  Conceive 
such  language  on  the  lips  of  a  Galilean  peasant  I 
On  the  lips  of  Socrates  or  Julius  Caesar  it  would 
have  seemed  the  language  of  insanity,  and  would 
have  been  greeted  with  ridicule  and  reprobation. 
'  If  Christ,'  says  S.  T.  Coleridge,t  '  had  been  a 
mere  man,  it  would  have  been  ridiculous  in  him 
to  call  himself  "  the  Son  of  man  "  ;  but  being 
God  and  man,  it  then  became,  in  his  own 
assumption  of  it,  a  pecuhar  and  mysterious  title. 
So,  if  Christ  had  been  a  mere  man,  his  saying, 
"  My  Father  is  greater  than  I "  (John  xv.  28), 
would  have  been  as  unmeaning.  It  would 
be  laughable  enough,  for  example,  to  hear  me 
say,  "  My  '  Remorse  '  succeeded,  indeed  ;  but 
Shakspeare  is  a  greater  dramatist  than  I."  But 
how  immeasurably  more  foolish,  more  mon- 
strous, would  it  be  for  a  man,  however  honest, 
good,  or  wise,  to  say,  "  But  Jehovah  is  greater 
than  I "  I '  Yet  this  was  the  language,  the 
habitual  language,  of  Jesus,  and  to  those  who 

*  Luke  xiv.  26.  f  Table  Talk,  May  1,  1823. 


THE   EVANGELIC  PORTRAITURE        73 

knew  Him  best  and  could  judge  most  truly  of 
the  justice  of  His  claims,  it  seemed  natural  and 
fitting  on  His  lips.  It  was  the  blinded  Jews  who 
pronounced  Him  mad  and  sought  to  slay  Him.* 

Afifain,  we  observe  the  vcoi^ds  widch  the  Evan- 
gelists  ascribe  to  Jesses.  There  are  no  words 
in  the  Scriptures  or  elsewhere   com- 

^  1  1  ^-  "^^^  words 

parable    to     them.       They     have     a  of  jesus: 
peculiar  fragrance.     They  sparkle  on  their 

,  ,.,  .  ...  p  distinction, 

the  page  like  gems  in  a  setting  or 
base  metal.  We  recognise  instinctively  where 
Jesus  ceases  and  the  Evangelist  begins.  My  old 
teacher  and  friend,  the  late  Professor  A.  B. 
Bruce,  once  told  me  how  in  the  early  days  of 
his  ministry  it  chanced  that  he  was  studying  the 
miracle  of  the  Healing  of  the  Lunatic  Boy,  and 
he  stumbled  over  the  verse  :  '  Howbeit  this  kind 
goeth  not  out  but  by  prayer  and  fasting.'  f  The 
mention  of  '  fasting '  struck  him  as  so  alien 
from  the  spirit  of  Jesus.  He  referred  to  his 
Tischendorf,  and  what  did  he  find  ?  The  verse 
is  absent  from  the  authentic  text  of  St.  Mat- 
thew, being  an  importation  from  the  parallel 
narrative    of    St.    Mark ;  \    and   in    the    latter, 

*  John  X.  20.  t  Matt.  xvii.  21.  |  Mark  ix.  29. 

Tlie  Historic  Jesus  11 


74  THE   SELF-EVIDENCE   OF 

furthermore,  '  and  fasting '  is  a  gloss.  Thus  was 
his  instinct  justified.  And  the  incident  is  an 
instance  of  a  principle.  The  genuine  sayings 
of  Jesus  are  always  self-attesting.  They  are 
distinguishable  from  counterfeits  by  simple 
inspection.* 

And  their   vitality  is   perennial.     They   still 

throb,  still  kindle,  still  make   our   hearts   burn 

within  us,  reminding  us  how  He  said  : 

their  reality. 

'  The  words  that  I  have  spoken  unto 
you  are  spirit,  and  are  life.'  f  '  The  impression 
the  Jesus  of  the  Gospels  produces  on  us,'  says 
Hermann  Kutter, J  'is  one  of  unapproachable 
reality.  As  we  listen  to  His  striking  words,  we 
have  no  desire  to  study  their  grammatical  con- 
struction or  philosophical  content — we  are  so 
amazed  at  their  reality.  Whether  we  under- 
stand them  or  not,  we  find  ourselves  asking  if 

*  So  Luke  viii.  46  ascribes  to  Jesus  the  crude  idea  that  the 
woman's  touch  drew  power  out  of  Him,  as  though  His  person 
were  magnetic  ;  Mark  v.  30  shows  that  it  is  no  saying  of 
Jesus  but  a  comment  of  the  Evangelic  Tradition.  Similarly 
Matt.  xii.  40  is  not  only  savourless  but  irrelevant,  since  the 
'  sign  '  to  the  Ninevites  was  the  preaching  of  Jonah,  not  his 
adventure  with  the  whale,  of  which  they  knew  nothing  ;  and 
its  absence  from  Luke  xi.  29,  30  proves  it  a  homiletic  gloss. 
Cf.  The  Days  of  His  Flesh,  Introd.,  pp.  xxx  f. 

t  John  vi.  63.  |  Soc.  Devioo\,  pp.  54  f. 


THE  EVANGELIC   PORTRAITURE        75 

they  are  not  the  keys  of  life's  mysteries,  and 
whether  through  them  we  shall  not  know  the 
truth — the  whole  truth.  .  .  .  AVhether  spoken 
to  the  crowd  or  in  the  presence  of  the  ques- 
tioning Scribes,  His  words  displayed  the  same 
judgment — there  was  nothing  to  retract,  no 
mistake  to  correct.' 


Another  characteristic  of  the  Evangelic  Jesus 
is  His  superiority  to  the  distinctions  ^  ^.g 
of  the  world  He  lived  in— the  distinc-  s;ipe"ority  to 

'■>  contemporary 

tions  of  class,  sect,  and  nation.  limitations: 

Class  distinctions  were  strongly  marked  in 
Jewish  society.  At  one  extreme  stood  the 
'  Sinners,'  the  social  outcasts  ;  and  at 

(1)  class : 

the  other,  condemning  these  and 
shunning  the  pollution  of  contact  with 
them,  the  Pharisees,  the  holy  men  of  Israel. 
With  the  former  Jesus  had  much  to  do.  They 
were  the  special  objects  of  His  solicitude,  inso- 
much that  He  was  nicknamed  the  '  Friend  of 
Sinners  '  ;*  and  when  the  Pharisees  blamed  Him 
and  accused  Him  of  secret  sympathy  with  sin, 
His  defence  was  that  He  was  the  Physician  of 
Souls,  and  therefore  it  was  fitting  that  He  should 

*  Matt.  xi.  19. 


76  THE   SELF-EVIDENCE  OF 

take  to  do  with  the  morally  diseased :  '  They 
that  are  whole  have  no  need  of  a  physician,  but 
they  that  are  sick.'  ^ 

He    was    the    Friend    of    Sinners,    but    the 

singular   fact   is   that   He   was    the    Friend   of 

Pharisees    too.      Those    '  holy    men ' 

Pharisees, 

were  not  all  His  enemies.  Many  of 
them,  despite  their  prejudices,  were  earnest 
seekers  after  God,  and  they  were  well  disposed 
to  the  Prophet  of  Galilee,  t  They  would  invite 
Him  to  their  houses  and  their  tables,  and  He 
gladly  went  and  talked  with  them  of  the  things 
of  His  Kingdom.^ 

Another  despised  class  was  womankind.  §     ft 

*  Matt.  ix.  12.  Cf.  Diog.  Laert.,  Antisth.  vi.  6  :  oreidi- 
^6/J.eroQ  TTore  £7rt  rw  Trovripolg  (rvyyei'eaOai,  Kal  ol  larpol,  (prjerl,  fiera 
Tuip  vodovvTMv  elfflv  aX\'  oh  Trvpirrovaiy.  Bunyan,  JerusaleTn- 
Sinner  :  '  Christ  Jesus,  as  you  may  perceive,  has  put  himself 
under  the  term  of  a  Physician,  a  Doctor  for  curing  of 
diseases  :  and  you  know  that  applause,  and  a  fame,  is  a 
thing  that  physicians  much  desire.  That  is  it  that  helps 
them  to  patients,  and  that  also  that  will  help  their  patients 
to  commit  themselves  to  their  skill  for  cure,  with  more  con- 
fidence and  repose  of  spirit.  And  the  best  way  for  a  doctor 
or  physician  to  get  themselves  a  name,  is  in  the  first  place  to 
take  in  hand,  and  cure  some  such  as  all  others  have  given  off 
for  lost  and  dead.' 

t  Of.  Acts  XV.  5. 

X  Cf.  Luke  vii.  36  ff,,  xi.  37  ff.,  riv.  1  ff. 

§  See  The  Days  of  His  Flesh,  p.  77, 


THE  EVANGELIC  PORTRAITURE        77 

was  accounted  unseemly  for  a  Jew  to  salute  a 
woman,  or  to  converse  with  her  openly,  even 
if  she  were  his  wife  or  his  daughter 

.        Women; 

or  his  sister.  Hence  the  surprise 
of  the  disciples  at  the  beginning  of  His  ministry 
when,  unfamiliar  as  yet  with  the  Master's 
manner,  they  returned  from  Sychar  and  found 
Him  sitting  on  Jacob's  Well  and  '  talking  with 
a  woman.'*  And  in  the  JNlorning  Prayer  the 
men  bless  God  for  not  making  them  Gentiles, 
slaves,  women. t  In  Jesus  womankind  found  a 
friend.  Women  were  numbered  among  His 
disciples,  and  they  proved  nobly  worthy  of 
His  grace,  ministering  to  the  necessities  of 
His  homeless  condition  |  and  continuing  faithful 
unto  death.  § 

He  was  exempt  also  from  the  distinctions  of 
sect.     Think  what  it   means  that  'the  Apostle 

*  John  iv.  27,  R.V. 

t  A  similar  sentiment  is  ascribed  to  Plato.  Lact.  III. 
xix.  17 :  '  Aiebat  se  gratias  agere  naturae,  primum  quod 
homo  natus  esset  potius  quam  mutum  animal,  deinde  quod 
mas  potius  quam  femina,  quod  Graecus  quam  barbarus, 
postremo  quod  Atheniensis  et  quod  temporibus  Socratis.' 
Cf.  Plut.,  Mar.  xlvi.  1.  The  sentiment  was  ascribed  also  to 
Thales  (Diog.  Laert.  i.  33). 

X  Luke  viii.  2. 

§  Matt,  xxvii.  55,  56  ;  Mark  xv.  40,  41 ;  Lvike  xxiii.  48,  49, 


78  THE  SELF-EVIDENCE   OF 

choir'   included  Matthew  the  Taxgatherer   and 
Simon    the    Zealot.      The    taxgatherers    were 
hated  as   agents   of  the   Roman  op- 
pressor, and  a  Jewish  taxgatherer  was 
and  Tax-         peculiarly  odious.     He  was  a  hireling 

e-atherers  •  . 

traitor  to  his  country  and  his  God. 
There  was  a  wide  gulf  between  the  taxgatherers 
and  the  Zealots,  those  desperate  patriots  who 
had  sworn  relentless  enmity  against  the  imperial 
domination,  and  were  ever  kindling  the  flame 
of  insurrection.  Yet  a  taxgatherer  and  a  Zealot 
met  in  brotherhood  at  the  feet  of  Jesus.  His 
heart  had  room  for  both. 

Furthermore,     He      exhibited     no     national 
characteristics.     And  this  is  the  more  remark- 
able inasmuch  as  He  belonged   to  a 

(3)  nation-  .  p         •.        •     . 

aiity:  nation  notorious   lor   its   intense,  ex- 

jewish  elusive,   almost    ferocious   patriotism, 

exc  usiveness,  ^^^^  Jews  wcrc  designated,  not  with- 
out justice,  'enemies  of  the  rest  of  mankind,' 
and,  according  to  the  Roman  satirist,  they  would 
not  show  the  road  to  a  wanderer  unless  he  were 
a  fellow- worshipper  and  would  not  guide  thirsty 
travellers  to  a  well  unless  they  were  circum- 
cised.*    A  Jew  was  always  recognisable.     Could 

*■  1  Thess.  ii.  15.     Tac,    Hist.   v.   5  :    '  Apud  ipsos  fides 


THE  EVANGELIC  PORTRAITURE        79 

St.  Paul  ever  have  been  mistaken  for  a  Greek  or 
a  Roman  ?  Whatever  sympathetic  disguises  he 
might  assume,  becoming  '  all  things  to  all  men, 
that  he  might  by  all  means  save  some,'  he  never 
ceased  to  be  a  Jew,  a  Hebrew  of  the  Hebrews, 
proud  of  his  nationality,*  and  overflowing  with 
love  for  his  people  even  while  he  pronounced 
their  condemnation,  t 

It  was  otherwise  with  Jesus.     He  was  purely 
human,  and  to  this  the  Evangelists  have  borne  a 
testimony  all  the  more  impressive  that  national 
it   is   undesigned.      There   were   four  '^^^"^^^ 
distinct   types   of  nationality  at  that  Evangelists, 
period — the  Jewish  type,  the  Roman,  the  Greek, 
and   the   Alexandrian ;    and   to   these   the  four 
Gospels    correspond.      St.     Matthew's    is    the 
Jewish    Gospel,   St.    Mark's    the    Roman,    St. 
Luke's   the   Greek,  and   St.   John's   the   Alex- 
andrian.    Each  has  interpreted  Jesus  for  a  race, 
and  shown  how  He  satisfied  its  peculiar  need ; 
but  in  so  far  each  has  belittledHim.     '  Moses 

obstinata,  naisericordia  in  promptu,  sed  adversus  omnes  alios 
hostile  odium.'     Juv.  xiv.  103  f.  : 

'  Non  monstrare  vias  eadem  nisi  sacra  colenti, 
Quaesituna  ad  fonteni  solos  deducere  verpos.' 

*  Phil.  iii.  4-7.  t  Eom.  ix.  1-8. 


80  THE   SELF-EVIDENCE   OF 

for  a  people,'  says  Blaise  Pascal ;  '  Jesus  Christ 
for  all  men.'  And  this  is  the  reason  why  there 
was  need  of  four  Gospels,  that  each  nation 
might  see  Him  as  its  own  Saviour,  and  that 
liumanity  might  recognise  its  unity  in  Him. 

He  was  for  all  mankind.  He  bore  no  racial 
mark,  insomuch  that  Renan,  arguing  from  the 
universality  ^amc  of  the  proviucc,  Gelil  haggoijim, 
of  Jesus.  <ti^g  Circle  of  the  Gentiles,'  that  the 
Galileans  were  a  mixed  race,  pronounces  it 
impossible  '  to  ascertain  what  blood  flowed  in 
the  veins  of  him  who  has  contributed  most 
to  efface  the  distinctions  of  blood  in  humanity.' 
This  is  a  perverse  fancy,  nevertheless  it  serves 
to  emphasise  an  indubitable  and  truly  remark- 
able fact.  Jesus,  though  a  Jew  after  the  flesh,^ 
was  purely  human.  He  recognised  all  the 
children  of  men  as  children  of  one  Heavenly 
P^'ather ;  He  owned  kinship  with  all,  whether 
Jews  or  Gentiles,  who  did  the  Father's  will ; 
and  He  pronounced  Jerusalem  no  whit  more 
sacred  than  the  mountain  where  the  Samaritans 
worshipped.  And  all  met  in  Him.  He  was — 
to  employ  an  exquisite  mistranslation — '  the 
Desire  of  all  nations,'  t  the  Saviour  for  whom 

*  Cf.  Rom.  ix.  5.  t  Hagg.  ii.  7. 


THE  EVANGELIC  PORTRAITURE        81 

the  age-long  hunger  of  the   human  heart  had 
been  an  unconscious  yearning,  a  blind  groping. 

One   other    feature    of  the   Evangelic    Jesus 
must  be  noted — His  singular  attitude  5  ^is  detach- 
totvard  the  opinions  of  His  day,  His  ^ntempSary 
absolute     detachment     from     current  op^^io^s; 
theories. 

Apollonius  of  Tyana  was  a  child  of  his  age. 
He  breathed  its  spirit  and  shared  its  beliefs ; 
and  as  for  his  original  ideas,  though 

.  contrast  with 

they  seemed  to  his  biographer  pro-  Apouomus 
digies  of  supernatural  wisdom,  they 
simply  amuse  us  by  their  childishness.  It  is 
related,  for  instance,  that  on  reaching  the 
western  coast  of  Spain  he  observed  the  pheno- 
menon of  the  ocean's  ebb  and  flow,  so  surprising 
to  one  accustomed  to  the  tideless  Mediter- 
ranean ;*  and  he  accounted  for  it  by  the  theory 
that  there  are  vast  caverns  at  the  bottom  of 
the  sea,  and  when  the  wind  which  fills  these 
rushes  out,  it  forces  the  water  back  upon  the 
land  ;  then,  when  it  returns  like  a  great  respira- 
tion, the  water  subsides.! 

*  Of.  the  astonishment  of  the  crews  of  Alexander  (Arrian, 
Andb.  vi.  19)  and  Caesar  {De  Bell.  Gall.  vi.  29). 
t   Vit.  Apoll.  V.  2. 
TTie  Historic  Jesus  12 


82  THE  SELF-EVIDENCE   OF 

There    is  nothing  Uke  this  in  the   Gospels. 
*  One  of  the  strongest   pieces  of  objective  evi- 
dence in  favour  of  Christianity,'  says 

'  One  of  the  . 

strongest  the  late  Dr.  G.  J.  Romanes,*  'is  not 
objective  Sufficiently  enforced  by  apologists. 
Indeed,  I  am  not  aware  that  I  have 
ever  seen  it  mentioned.  It  is  the  absence  from 
the  biography  of  Christ  of  any  doctrines  which 
the  subsequent  growth  of  human  knowledge — 
whether  in  natural  science,  ethics,  political 
economy,  or  elsewhere — has  had  to  discount. 
This  negative  argument  is  really  almost  as 
strong  as  the  positive  one  from  what  Christ 
did  teach.  For  when  we  consider  what  a  large 
number  of  sayings  are  recorded  of — or  at  least 
attributed  to — Him,  it  becomes  most  remark- 
able that  in  literal  truth  there  is  no  reason  why 
any  of  His  words  should  ever  pass  away  in  the 
sense  of  becoming  obsolete.  .  .  .  Contrast  Jesus 
Christ  in  this  respect  with  other  thinkers  of 
like  antiquity.  Even  Plato,  who,  though  some 
four  hundred  years  before  Christ  in  point  of 
time,  was  greatly  in  advance  of  him  in  respect 
of  philosophic  thought,  is  nowhere  in  this  respect 
as  compared  with  Christ.     Read  the  Dialogues, 

*  Thoughts  on  Religion,  p.  157. 


THE   EVANGELIC  PORTRAITURE         83 

and  see  how  enormous  is  the  contrast  with  the 
Gospels  in  respect  of  errors  of  all  kinds,  reaching 
even  to  absurdity  in  respect  of  reason,  and  to 
sayings  shocking  to  the  moral  sense.  Yet  this 
is  confessedly  the  highest  level  of  human  reason 
on  the  lines  of  spirituality,  when  unaided  by 
alleged  revelation.' 

Whatever  its  explanation,  the  fact  stands  that,  | 
so  far  as  the  record  extends,  there  is  nothing  in 
the  teaching  of  Jesus  which  implicated  it  with 
the  notions  of  His  day  or — which  is  still  more 
remarkable — has  brought  it  into  collision  with 
the  later  discoveries  of  Science  or  Criticism. 
It  was  to  the  Book  of  Joshua  and  not  to  the 
Gospels  that  appeal  was  made  in  vindication 
of  the  Ptolemaic  astronomy ;  when  the  Evolu- 
tionary Hypothesis  was  propounded,  it  was  with 
the  cosmogony  of  Moses  and  not  with  the 
teaching  of  our  Lord  that  it  seemed  to  conflict ; 
and  there  is  no  pronouncement  of  His  which 
prohibits  Criticism  from  determining  on  proper 
evidence  the  date  or  authorship  of  the  docu- 
ments of  the  Old  Testament. 

It   were,  however,  endless  to  exhibit  all  the 
wonder  of  the  picture  which  the  EvangeHsts 


84  THE   SELF-EVIDENCE  OF 

have  painted,  and  what  we  have  seen  is  sufficient. 
There   are   three  results  which   have 

Besults : 

clearly  emerged  from  our  scrutmy. 

The  first  is  the  superiority  of  the  Evangelic 

Jesus    to    His    biographers.     He   is    not    their 

creation.      He   always    stands    above 

(1)  the  Evan-  i      i  i      i  xx« 

geiic  Jesus      them,  and  they  look  up  to  Him  and 

to  His  seek    to    interpret    Him.     And    fre- 

lograp  ers,   ^^gj^^jy  they  misconstrue  Him,  thus 

unconsciously  attesting  His  transcendence. 
'Jesus  himself,'  says  Matthew  Arnold,*  'as 
he  appears  in  the  Gospels,  and  for  the  very 
reason  that  he  is  so  manifestly  above  the  heads 
of  his  reporters  there,  is,  in  the  jargon  of  modern 
philosophy,  an  absolute ;  we  cannot  explain  him, 
cannot  get  behind  him  and  above  him,  cannot 
command  him.'  And  it  is  very  wonderful  how 
the  teaching  of  Jesus  is  ever  in  advance  of  the 
human  intellect  in  its  onward  march.  '  I  venture 
to  think,'  says  Dr.  S.  D.  McConnell,t  'that 
Darwin  and  the  martyrs  of  natural  science 
have  done  more  to  make  the  word  of  Christ 
intelligible  than  have  Augustine  and  the  theo- 
logians.    It  is  little  less  than  marvellous,  the 

*  Preface  to  Literature  and  Dogma. 
t  Evolution  of  Immortality,  pp.  135  f , 


THE  EVANGELIC  PORTRAITURE    85 

way  in  which  the  words  of  Jesus  fit  in  with 
the  forms  of  thought  which  are  to-day  current. 
They  are  Hfe,  generation,  survival  of  the  fit, 
perishing  of  the  unfit,  tree  and  fruit,  multipHca- 
tion  by  cell  growth  as  yeast,  operation  by 
chemical  contact  as  salt,  dying  of  the  lonely 
seed  to  produce  much  fruit,  imposition  of  a 
higher  form  of  life  upon  a  lower  by  being  born 
from  above,  grafting  a  new  scion  upon  a  wild 
stock,  the  phenomena  of  plant  growth  from  the 
seed  through  the  blade,  the  ear,  and  the  matured 
grain,  and,  finally,  the  attainment  of  an  indi- 
vidual life  which  has  an  eternal  quality.'  Thus 
Science  and  Philosophy  proclaim  their  inter- 
pretations of  the  Universe,  and  sometimes  these 
seem  subversive  of  things  most  surely  believed ; 
and,  behold,  it  presently  appears  that  they  are 
in  truth  no  novel  discoveries  but  principles 
which  have  all  along  been  lying  unobserved 
in  the  Christian  revelation. 

The  Evangelic  Jesus  is  independent  of  His 
environment.  It  is  impossible  to  analyse  Him 
and  distinguish  the   influences  which 

1  1  •  f.  TT-  TT      •      (2)mdepen- 

went  to  the  makmg  or  Him.     He  is  dent  of 

.   -  -  environment ; 

a  debtor  neither  to  the  Jews  nor  to 

the  Greeks.     He  is  not  a  child  of  His  age,  else 


86  THE   SELF-EVIDENCE   OF 

He  would  have  been,  in  every  particular,  other 
than  He  is.  His  is  the  one  perfectly  original 
and  absolutely  self-determined  life  in  the  history 
of  mankind. 

He  stands  for  God.  Apart  from  every  meta- 
physical theory  of  His  person,  He  has  for  all 
(3)  stands  time  '  the  value  of  God.'  In  Him 
for  God.  humanity  finds  evermore  its   highest 

conception  of  the  character  of  God  and  His 
relation  to  the  world.  '  Religion,'  says  J.  S. 
Mill,*  'cannot  be  said  to  have  made  a  bad 
choice  in  pitching  on  this  man  as  the  ideal 
representative  and  guide  of  humanity ;  nor, 
even  now,  would  it  be  easy,  even  for  an  un- 
believer, to  find  a  better  translation  of  the  rule 
of  virtue  from  the  abstract  into  the  concrete, 
than  to  endeavour  so  to  live  that  Christ  would 
approve  our  life.' 

Now,  what  must  be  said  of  this  picture  ?  Two 
answers  have  been  given.  One  is  that  it  is  a 
Insufficient  crcatiou  of  somc  religious  genius; 
explanations:  ^^^   ^^le  other,   that  it  is   a  product 

of  the  myth-forming  genius  of  the  primitive 
Church. 

*  Three  Essays  on  Religion,  pp.  254  f. 


THE  EVANGELIC  PORTRAITURE        87 

The  former  is,  as  we  have  seen,  the  answer 
of  Green,  who  ascribes  to  St.  John  the  '  final 
spiritual  interpretation   of  the  person 

(1)  a  creation 

of  Christ,' which  has  'fixed  it  in  the  of  religious 
purified  conscience  as  the  immanent 
God.'  And  it  is  the  answer  also  of  Pfleiderer. 
His  theory  is  that  St.  Paul  was  the  creator  of 
Christ,  and  this  is  the  manner  of  his  proof:  he 
first  ascertains  from  the  recognised  epistles  what 
was  the  Apostle's  conception  of  Christianity, 
and  then  he  proceeds  to  demonstrate  that  it  is 
reflected  in  the  evangelic  narrative.^  It  is  not 
the  Jesus  of  history  that  the  Evangelists  portray 
but  the  Christ  of  the  Pauline  theology. 

A  theory  of  this  sort,  however,  simply  creates 
a  difficulty  greater  than  that  which  it  seeks  to 
remove.  When  men  make  themselves  a  god, 
they  always  fashion  him  in  their  own  likeness. 
The  Ethiopians,  said  Xenophanes  long  ago  in 
derision  of  the  anthropomorphic  deities  of  the 
Homeric  poems, f  made  their  gods  black  and 
snub-nosed  like  themselves  ;  the  Thracians  made 

*  UrcJiristenthtim,  p.  520. 

t  Theodoret.  Cfrcec.  Affect.  Cur.  iii.  780 :  Sevofay'ijg  6 
Ko\o(pbjyioe  roid^E  (prjiriy' 

dW  01  (3poro\   hoKovai  yeyvdadai  deovg, 

TTjy  iT(peTepr]v  S'   kaQfJTa  i^uv  (j)U)vriv  re  ^Efiag  re. 


88  THE   SELF-EVIDENCE  OF 

theirs  blue-eyed  and  ruddy  ;  so,  too,  the  Medes 
and  Persians  and  the  Egyptians  also  made  theirs 
after  their  own  image ;  and  if  horses  and  oxen 
had  hands,  they  would  make  themselves  gods  in 
the  likeness  of  horses  and  oxen.  St.  Paul  was  a 
Pharisee,  and,  had  he  been  the  creator  of  the 
Evangelic  Jesus,  he  would  have  made  Him  in 
the  likeness  of  a  Pharisee.  It  is  unthinkable, 
and  contrary  to  all  our  knowledge  of  him,  that 
he  should  have  risen  so  far  above  himself  as  to 
conceive  that  transcendent  ideal.  And  the  issue 
is  clear.  If  St.  Paul  were  the  creator  of  Jesus, 
then  he  was  far  greater  than  we  have  ever 
thought.  To  conceive  so  divine  an  ideal  he 
must  have  been  himself  no  less  than  divine,  and 
it  remains  that  we  should  transfer  to  him  the 
adoration  which  we  have  paid  to  Jesus. 

Kal    TToXtJ'" 

aW  e"t  Toi  )(£7pac  ££X'"'  ftoeg  ■>)e  XeovTsg 
T]   ypa\paL  •^^eipetrcn  Kai   epya   TEXelf   airep   avhpsQ, 
'iTTTToi  fiev   0'   'Ittttokti,   /3dfe   ^£  TE  ftovtrly  onoiag, 
Kai  KE  Oeuip   Iciag  Eypacpov  Kal  o-wjuar'  iwoiovv 

TOiavO      OlOV    TTEp    KaVTOl     CE^ag     Ef)^01'    OflOlOV . 

.  .  .  rovg  fXEV  yap  Aldlowag  niXavag  Kal  (rifiovg  ypa<l>Eiv  kfrjcre 
Tovg  olKEiovg  dEOvg,  biroloi  Be  Kal  avrol  iTEipvKaaiy'  rovg  ^e  yt 
Op^Kag  yXavKovg  te  Kal  kpvQpovg,  Kal  fiivToi  Kal  Wrfcovg  Kal 
JliptTag  (T<pi(jLv  avToig  ioiKorag'  koI  AlyvTrrlovg  thaavTOjg  ^lafiop^ovv 
Trpog  rrjv  olKEiav  fioo^w-     Cf.  Clem.  Alex.,  Str.  v.  109. 


THE   EVANGELIC   PORTRAITURE        89 

Neither  can  the  Evangelic  Jesus  be  a  creation 
of  'the  spontaneous  productivity  of  the  Chris- 
tian spirit  in  the  primitive  Church.' 

^  _  ^  _  (2)  a  product 

Humanity    cannot    transcend    itself,  o^^^^ 

•^        ,    ^  ,  ^  myth-forming 

Surely  scepticism  has  its  credulity  no  genius  of 

,  1  n  '   ^  1  •       •  1       the  Church, 

less  than  faith  when  it  is  gravely 
maintained  that  so  radiant  an  ideal  dawned  upon 
'nearly  the  most  degraded  generation  of  the 
most  narrow-minded  race  that  the  world  has 
ever  known,  and  made  it  the  birthplace  of  a  new 
earth.'  *  It  arose  in  a  land  barren  of  wisdom 
and  religiously  bankrupt,  and  it  has  continued 
for  more  than  sixty  generations  the  wonder  and 
inspiration  of  mankind.  It  must  have  been 
more  than  a  dream  :  it  must  have  been  a  mani- 
festation. '  I  cannot  understand  the  history  of 
the  Christian  Church  at  all,  if  all  the  fervent 
trust  which  has  been  stirred  by  faith  in  the 
actual  inspirations  of  a  nature  at  once  eternal 
and  human,  has  been  lavished  on  a  dream.'  t 
That  matchless  Life,  in  which  the  Divine  and 
the  human  meet,  must  have  been  actually  lived 
upon  the  earth,  else  the  ideal  of  it  would  never 
have  entered  into  the  heart  of  man. 

*  Hutton,  Theol.  Ess.  viii.  p.  290. 
t  Ibid.,  p.  285. 
The  Historic  Jesus  13 


90  THE   SELF-EVIDENCE   OF 

And  thus  the  Evangelic  Jesus  is  Himself  the 

supreme    evidence    at   once   of  the    historicity 

of  the  evangelic  records  and  of  His 

Conclusion :  . 

own  Deity.     No  criticism  can  shake 

S6lf-6yid6IlC6 

of  tue  Evan-  this  surc  foundation.  It  may  be  that 
the  Gospels  exhibit  inaccuracies  and 
inconsistencies — though  it  were  well  for  such 
as  love  to  dwell  on  these  to  lay  to  heart  Rothe's 
warning  against  being  so  taken  up  with  the 
sun-spots  as  to  overlook  the  sun.''^  It  may 
be  that  the  Evangelists  were  liable  to  error 
and  subject  to  the  deflections  of  contemporary 
opinion  and  personal  prejudice — though  the 
more  one  studies  their  writings,  the  surer  does 
one  grow  that  untenable  as  every  theory  of 
Inspiration  may  and  indeed  must  be,  some 
singular  aid  was  vouchsafed  to  those  un- 
learned men  who  'carried  so  much  aether  in 
their  souls.'  t  It  will  hardly  be  disputed  by 
any  intelligent  believer  in  the  Deity  of  our 
Blessed  Lord  that  He  was  imperfectly  com- 
prehended and  incompletely  represented  by  His 

*  Stille  Stunden,  p.  22  :  '  Wer  iiber  den  Sonnenflecken 
die  Sonne  iibersieht,  sieht  der  richtig  ? ' 

t  Philostr.,  Apoll.  Tyan.  i.  33  :  touovtov  iv  ry  ^'^XV  'P^P^^ 
aWepa. 


THE  EVANGELIC  PORTRAITURE        91 

biographers — what  human  mmd  could  perfectly 
comprehend  or  what  human  hand  completely 
represent  the  vision  of  His  glory  ?  It  is 
impossible  to  gainsay  such  contentions,  but 
they  may  be  the  more  cheerfully  allowed 
inasmuch  as  they  furnish  no  inconsiderable 
argument  for  the  historicity  of  the  evangelic 
narratives  and  the  Deity  of  Him  they  tell  of. 
The  fact  that  Jesus  is  so  manifestly  'above 
the  heads  of  His  reporters'  is  a  conclusive 
proof  that,  when  they  wrote  of  Him,  they 
were  not  dealing  with  imagination  but  relating 
in  honest  simplicity  'things  which  they  had 
seen  and  heard.'  And  the  very  imperfection 
of  their  narratives  is  an  involuntary  testimony 
to  His  ineffable  glory.  After  every  deduction 
the  Evangelic  Jesus  remains  a  wonderful  por- 
traiture. Blurred  though  it  may  be  by  the 
unskilfulness  of  the  artists,  it  is  still  a  picture 
limned  in  light  of  One  fairer  than  the  children 
of  men ;  and  if  a  picture  painted  by  weak 
human  hands  be  so  transcendently  beautiful, 
what  must  have  been  the  glory  of  the  Divine 
Original  ? 

And  thus  we  turn  from  the  strife  of  criticism 
and,  with  quiet  assurance,  rest  our  souls  on  the 


92  THE   SELF-EVIDENCE   OF 

Evangelic  Jesus  as  on  a  strong  rock  standing 
firm  amid  'the  removing  of  the  things  that 
The  end  of  au  ^^^  shakcn.'  It  is  the  end  of  all 
controversy,  controversy,  the  death  of  all  doubt 
and  fear,  when  He  is  recognised  as  the  In- 
carnation of  the  Eternal  God,  the  manifestation 
of  the  Unseen  Father. 

'  I  say,  the  acknowledgment  of  God  in  Christ, 
Accepted  by  thy  reason,  solves  for  thee 
All  qiiestions  in  the  earth  and  out  of  it.'* 

It  settles  every  dispute.  Is  it  the  existence  of 
God  that  is  disputed  ?  Then  Jesus  is  God 
manifest  in  the  flesh,  Dei  inaspecti  aspectabilis 
imago,  f  Is  it  immortality  that  is  doubted  ? 
Then  He  has  given  us  His  word  for  it :  'If 
it  were  not  so,  I  would  have  told  you ' ;  and 
He  is  the  Lord  of  Eternity  who  left  His  glory 
to  tell  us  what  lies  behind  the  shadow,  that 
our  hearts  might  be  glad.  Is  it  miracles  that 
are  in  question?  Then  Jesus  is  Himself  the 
Miracle  of  miracles.  '  A  sinless  Christ,'  says 
Professor  Bruce, J   'is  as  great   a  miracle  as  a 

*  Browning,  Death  in  Desert. 

t  Grotius  on  Col.  i.  15. 

I  Humiliation  of  Christ,  p.  208,  n.  1, 


THE   EVANGELIC  PORTRAITURE        93 

Christ  who  can  walk  on  the  water.'  In  view 
of  the  miraculousness  of  His  person  His 
miraculous  operations  appear  not  merely 
credible  but  inevitable.  The  wonder  were  if, 
being  what  He  was,  He  had  not  wrought 
these. 

In  truth  there  is  no  certainty  apart  from  Him. 
'  Other  foundation,'  says  St.  Paul,'^  '  can  no  man 
lay  than  that  which  is  laid,  which  is 

T  1     •  •  n    n  '  ^     ^^®  service 

Jesus  Christ.'  The  objects  of  faith  ofjesusto 
do  not  admit  of  demonstration.  '  All 
first  principles,'  says  Romanes,!  '  even  of  scien- 
tific facts  are  known  by  intuition  and  not  by 
reason.  No  one  can  deny  tliis.  Now  if  there 
be  a  God,  the  fact  is  certainly  of  the  nature  of 
a  first  principle  ;  for  it  must  be  the  first  of  all 
first  principles.  No  one  can  dispute  this.  No 
one  can  therefore  dispute  the  necessary  con- 
clusion that,  if  there  be  a  God,  He  is  knowable 
(if  knowable  at  all)  by  intuition  and  not  by 
reason.'  So  long  as  we  rest  on  demonstration 
we  can  never  attain  to  more  than  probability, 
and  our  faith  lies  at  the  mercy  of  each  subtle 
logomachist.      That  is   a   significant  confession 

*  1  Cor.  iii.  11. 

+  Thoughts  on  Religion,  p.  146. 


94        THE  EVANGELIC  PORTRAITURE 

which  one  of  the  persons  in  Cicero's  Tusculan 
Disputations  makes — that  while  he  was  reading 
Plato's  splendid  argument  he  felt  sure  of  the 
Immortality  of  the  Soul,  but  whenever  he  laid 
the  dialogue  aside  his  assurance  slipped  away 
from  him.  And  this  is  the  priceless  service 
that  Jesus  has  rendered  to  our  souls,  which 
were  made  for  God  and  are  restless  until  they 
find  rest  in  Him :  He  has  lifted  faith  for  ever 
out  of  the  domain  of  reason  into  that  of  intui- 
tion, and  has  made  it  sure  and  abiding  for  every 
one  who  has  eyes  to  behold  His  glory  and  a 
heart  to  understand  His  love. 


THE    EVIDENCE    OF    EXPERIENCE 


'  I  heard  certain  say  :  * '  Unless  I  find  it  in  the  archives,  I 
do  not  believe  it  in  the  Gospel."  And  when  I  said  to  them  : 
"  It  is  written,"  they  answered  me  :  "  That  is  the  question." 
For  me,  however,  the  archives  are  Jesus  Christ,  the  inviolable 
archives  His  Cross  and  Death  and  His  Resurrection  and  the 
Faith  that  is  through  Him  ;  wherein  I  would  be  justified  by 
jour  prayer.' 

St.  Ignatius,  Epistle  to  the  Philadelphians,  viii. 


THE   EVIDENCE   OF  EXPERIENCE 

IT   must    be    confessed    that   the    appeal    to 
experience    is    a    somewhat    perilous    ex- 
pedient, nor  should   it   be   employed 

..,         .  1         .  .  T       .      Peru  of 

Without  mucii  cu'cumspection.  It  is  appeal  to 
commonly  no  better  than  an  asylum  ^^®"®^°®* 
ignoranticE,  the  refuge  of  hard-pressed  enthusi- 
asts and  obscurantists  when  they  are  asked  a 
reason  concerning  the  hope  that  is  in  them,  and 
find  themselves  unready  to  give  an  answer.  '  It 
is  absurd,'  says  St.  Chrysostom,*  'that,  while 
the  physician  contends  with  precision  for  his 
craft,  and  the  currier,  and  the  weaver,  and  every 
sort  of  craftsman,  the  Christian  should  aUege 
that  he  cannot  furnish  a  reason  for  his  faith.' 
In  its  popular  use  the  appeal  to  experience  is 
too  often  a  riot  of  unreason ;  and  even  in  the 
hands  of  a  philosopher  it  is  apt  to  be  nothing 

*  In  Ev.  Joan.  Hotn.  xvi. 
The  Historic  Jesus  14  97 


98       THE  EVIDENCE  OF  EXPERIENCE 

else  than  a  reversion  to  the  Protagorean  homo 
mensura — 'that  man  is  the  measure  of  all 
things :  of  the  existent,  that  they  exist ;  and 
of  the  non-existent,  that  they  do  not  exist.'* 
'  He  means  by  that,'  says  Socrates,  f  '  that, 
as  everything  appears  to  me,  such  is  it  to  me ; 
and,  as  it  appears  to  you,  such  again  is  it  to 
you.'  And  the  consequence  is  that  there  is  no 
objective  certainty,  nothing  but  the  illusory 
impressions  of  the  senses.  There  was,  according 
to  Protagoras,  no  soul  beyond  the  senses,  and 
all  things  alike  were  true ;  and  he  '  could  know 
nothing  about  gods,  either  that  they  existed  or 
that  they  did  not  exist ;  for  there  were  many 
things  that  hindered  knowledge — the  lack  of 
certainty  and  the  brevity  of  the  life  of  man.'| 
It  is  to  this  conclusion  that  the  appeal  to 
experience  is  apt  to  lead ;  nevertheless  there  is 
j^g  a    legitimate   use    of    the   argument. 

legitimacy.  Indeed  it  is  necessary  ;  for  apart  from 
experience  there  can  be  no  certitude,  and  it  is 
the  only  final  test.  Was  not  Diogenes'  appeal 
to   experience   reasonable    and    incontrovertible 

*  Diog.   Laert.   ix.   51  :  "ko-vt^v  xprj/jLariDV  ^sTpov  avdpdJiroe' 

TWV  flEV   OVTWV   WQ   EffTl'    TWV   Zk  OVK  OVT(i}V  i)Q  OVK  e(TTl. 

t  Plat.,  Thecet.  151  E.  J  Diog.  Laert,,  ibid. 


THE  EVIDENCE   OF  EXPERIENCE       99 

when,  unable  to  expose  the  fallacy  of  Zeno's 
paralogism  of  the  impossibility  of  locomotion, 
he  rose  and  walked  ?     Solvitur  ambulando. 

The  argument  then  is  valid,  if  only  its 
conditions  be  observed.  And  what  are  its 
conditions  ?      The    question    resolves 

...  Its  conditions. 

itself  ultimately  into   the   distmction 
between  faith   and   superstition,  and   Romanes 
defines    the    criteria  which    differentiate    these 
as  '  the    spiritual    verification '   and   '  the  moral 
ingredient.'*      The  spiritual  verification  is  sub- 
jective, the  moral  ingredient  is  objective  ;   and 
where  the  latter  is  lacking,  the  former  is  invalid. 
It   is  told,  for  example,  how  an  impostor,  one 
Lacey    of    the    sect   of    '  the    Prophets,'    once 
visited     the     Lord     Chief-Justice     Holt     and 
demanded  the  release  of  a  brother  fanatic  who 
had  been   thrown   into   Newgate   for    seditious 
talk.      He    announced    himself  as    '  a   prophet 
of  the  Lord  God.'     '  He  has  sent  me  to  thee, 
and  would  have  thee  grant  a  nolle  prosequi  for 
John    Atkins,    His    servant,    whom   thou    hast 
sent    to    prison.'     Lacey 's   revelation   was,   for 
him,    a    spiritual    verification.     The    subjective 
condition  was  present,  but  what  of  the  objective 

*  Thoughts  on  Religion,  p.  139. 


100     THE  EVIDENCE   OF  EXPERIENCE 

:  condition,  the  moral  ingredient  ?  It  was  lack- 
ing, and  therefore  the  appeal  to  experience 
was  disallowed.  '  Thou  art  a  false  prophet,'  was 
his  lordship's  reply,  '  and  a  lying  knave.     If  the 

'  Lord  God  had  sent  thee,  it  would  have  been  to 
the  Attorney  General,   for   He  knows   that   it 

i  belongeth  not  to  the  Chief- Justice  to  grant  a 
nolle  'prosequi,  but  I,  as  Chief-Justice,  can  grant 
a  warrant  to  lay  a  lying  knave  by  the  heels.' 

The  test  of  the  argument  then  is  pragmatic  : 

it  must  work.     The  experience  to  which  appeal 

is   made    must  be   actual  and  verifi- 

Pragmatism.  ... 

able,  not  subjective  and  personal  but 
objective  and  demonstrable.  Thus  conditioned, 
it  is  the  surest  of  all  arguments,  and  it  bears 
powerfully  on  the  question  of  the  historicity 
of  the  Evangelic  Jesus. 

You    remember    that    principle    which    our 

Lord  is  reported  in  the  Fourth  Gospel  to  have 

enunciated  to  the  Jewish  rulers  when 

The  appeal  ,.  .  ,  __.  . 

sanctioned  they  wcrc  disputing  about  His  teach- 
by  Jesus.  .  .  ,  ,1       1  m  1         ^ 

ing  in  the  court  oi  the  1  emple :  * 
'  ]My  teaching  is  not  Mine,  but  His  that  sent 
Me.  If  any  man  willeth  to  do  His  will,  he 
shall  come  to  know  (yvwdtrat)  of  the  teaching, 

*  John  vii.  16,  17. 


THE  EVIDENCE   OF  EXPERIENCE     101 

whether  it  be  of  God,  or  whether  I  speak  from 
Myself.' 

St.  Augustme  entirely  misses  the  significance 
of  this  principle  when,  in  his  beautiful  exposition 
of  the  Gospel,  he  thus  explains  it :  j^^ .  ^^^y^ 
'Understanding  is  the  reward  of  faith,  ^^i^^^^^^' 
Never  seek  to  understand  in  order  that  you  may 
believe,  but  believe  in  order  that  you  may 
understand.'*  Our  Lord  is  not  recommending 
what  Romanes  terms  the  '  fool's  experiment '  of 
stifling  one's  doubt  and  blindly  accepting  an 
unintelligible  creed  in  the  hope  of  coming  to 
believe  it.  On  the  contrary,  He  challenges 
honest  investigation  and  proposes  a  method. 
And  it  is  precisely  the  method  which  is  pur- 
sued in  every  other  domain. 

It  is  the  method  of  Science.  The  first  step 
toward  discovery  is  a  theory  ;  tlien  follows  the 
testinff  of  the  theory  by  the  pheno- 

°  .  .  ^     .      .      The  method 

mena,  and  if  these  bear  it  out,  it  is  of: 
forthwith  established.     It  is  mere  loss  (i)  scientific 
of  breath  to  reason  about  the  theory. 
*  Do  not  think  ;   try '  that  celebrated  physician 
John   Hunter  was    accustomed   to   say   to   his 

*  Cf.  Anselm,  Proslog.  i.  :  '  Neque  enim  quaero  intelligere, 
ut  credam  ;  sed  credo,  ut  intelligam.' 


102     THE  EVIDENCE   OF  EXPERIENCE 

students ;  meaning :  'Do  not  waste  time  on 
a  priori  discussion  of  the  theory :  put  it  to  the 
test  and  ascertain  the  verdict  of  the  facts.'  * 

Again,  it  is  the  method  for  the  practice   of 
Art.     What   was    Rembrandt's   counsel    to   his 

(2)  the  prac-  pupil  Hoogstraten  when  the  latter 
ticeofArt;  teascd  him  with  questions?  'Try,' 
he  said,  'to  put  well  in  practice  what  you  already 
know.  In  so  doing  you  will,  in  good  time,  dis- 
cover the  hidden  things  which  you  now  inquire 
about.' 

And  so  in  the  domain  of  speculation.     It  was 

a  shrewd  observation   of  Dr.    Samuel  Johnson 

that   'so   many   objections   mio^ht   be 

(3)  specu-  .  . 

lative  made    to    everything,    that    nothing 

certainty.  ,  ,  i  i  i 

could  overcome  tiiem  but  the  neces- 
sity of  doing  something.'  And  Carlyle  has 
proclaimed  the  same  truth  in  his  impassioned 
discourse  on  The  Evei^lasting  Yea :  '  All 
speculation  is  by  nature  endless,  formless,  a 
vortex  amid  vortices :  only  by  a  felt  indubitable 
certainty  of  Experience  does  it  find  any  centre 
to  revolve  round,  and  so  fashion  itself  into  a 
system.  Most  true  it  is,  as  a  wise  man  teaches 
us,  that  "  Doubt  of  any  sort  cannot  be  removed 
*  Romanes,  Thoughts  on  Religion,  p.  167. 


THE   EVIDENCE   OF  EXPERIENCE      103 

except  by  Action."  On  which  ground,  too,  let 
him  who  gropes  painfully  in  darkness  or  un- 
certainty, and  prays  vehemently  that  the  dawn 
may  ripen  into  day,  lay  this  other  precept  well 
to  heart,  which  to  me  was  of  invaluable  service : 
''Do  the  Duty  which  lies  nearest  thee  J'  which  thou 
knowest  to  be  a  Duty !  The  second  Duty  will 
already  have  become  clearer.' 

In  all  these  domains  the  principle  is  recog- 
nised ;  and  when  our  Lord  says :  '  If  any  man 
willeth  to  do  His  will,  he  shall  come 

So  in  faith. 

to  know  of  the  teaching,  whether  it 
be  of  God,  or  whether  I  speak  from  Myself,' 
He  simply  carries  it  into  the  domain  of  Religion 
with  its  peculiar  perplexities,  and  insists  that  it 
be  applied  to  these  also.  It  is  no  '  fool's  experi- 
ment '  that  He  requires,  no  irrational  acceptance 
of  something  unintelligible  after  the  manner  of 
St.  Augustine's  crede  ut  intelligas.  His  '  willing 
to  do  the  will  of  God  '  corresponds  in  the  domain 
of  Religion  to  Rembrandt's  '  trying  to  put  well 
in  practice  what  you  already  know'  in  the 
domain  of  Art,  and  Carlyle's  '  doing  the  Duty 
which  lies  nearest  thee,  which  thou  knowest  to 
be  a  Duty,'  in  the  domain  of  Morals.  He  bids 
us  assume  the  right  attitude  toward  life  with 


104      THE   EVIDENCE   OF  EXPERIENCE 

its  manifold  perplexities,  toward  our  fellow- 
creatures,  and  toward  the  mysteries  which 
encompass  us.  Face  these  insistent  and  ever- 
present  actualities  gently  and  faithfully ;  be 
patient ;  be  brave  ;  be  kind  ;  be  large-hearted  ; 
seek  the  ends  which  you  know  to  be  best  and 
highest.  This  is  'willing  to  do  the  will  of 
God ' ;  and  the  assurance  is  that  in  so  doing 
we  shall  '  come  to  know  of  the  teaching '  of  our 
Lord.  We  shall  recognise  its  reasonableness ; 
and  it  will  fit  in  with  our  experience,  and  thus 
irresistibly  attest  its  truth.  It  will  prove  itself 
the  right  key  by  opening  the  door. 

This  is  the  only  and  the  infallible  way  to  find 
the  clue  of  the  labyrinth  and  emerge  into  the 
The  clue  of      broad  light  of  day.     It  is  the  under- 

the  labyrinth,    lying    rcaSOU    of  that   wisC    COUUSCl   of 

Coleridge :  ^  '  The  best  way  to  bring  a  clever 
young  man  who  has  become  sceptical  and 
unsettled  to  reason,  is  to  make  him  feel  some- 
thing in  any  way.  Love,  if  sincere  and 
unworldly,  will,  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  bring 
him  to  a  sense  and  assurance  of  something  real 
and  actual ;  and  that  sense  alone  will  make 
him    think    to    a    sound     purpose,    instead    of 

*  Table  Talk,  May  17,  1830. 


THE   EVIDENCE   OF  EXPERIENCE     105 

dreaming  that  he  is  thinking.'  Such  is  the 
method.  It  is  hke  following  the  narrow  and 
often  hardly  distinguishable  track  through  a 
mountain-gorge.  You  are  hemmed  in  on  either 
hand  by  beetling  crags,  and  you  see  no  pass 
before  you ;  but  follow  the  track,  and  by  and 
by  you  will  gain  the  height,  and  the  broad, 
sunlit  landscape  will  break  upon  your  view. 

And  it  may  be  observed  in  passing  that  this 
is  the  principle  which  underlies  the  Reformed 
doctrine   that    the   ultimate   evidence 

.  Cf.  the 

for  believers  that  the  Holy  Scripture  Reformed 

.  Testimonium 

is  the   Word  or    God   is   neither   the  Spiritus 
udgment  of  the  Church  nor  the  force 
of    reason,    but    the    Testimony   of    the    Holy 
Spirit  in  their  own  hearts.     '  Thouffh,' 

.      >  .       .  ,  ,       Calvin. 

says  Calvin,*  '  one  vindicate  the  Holy 
Word  of  God  from  the  gainsayings  of  men,  he 
will  not  thereby  fix  in  their  hearts  the  certitude 
which  piety  requires.  Because  religion  seems 
to  profane  men  to  stand  merely  in  opinion, 
they  desire  and  demand  that,  lest  they  believe 
anything  foolishly  or  lightly,  it  should  be  proved 
to  them  by  reason  that  Moses  and  the  Prophets 
spoke  by  divine  inspiration  {divinitus).     But  I 

*  Instit.  I.  vii.  4. 
The  Historic  Jems  15 


106     THE   EVIDENCE   OF   EXPERIENCE 

answer  that  the  testimony  of  the  Spirit  is 
superior  to  all  reason.  For,  as  God  alone  is 
a  fit  witness  concerning  Himself  in  His  Word, 
so  also  the  Word  will  not  find  faith  in  the 
hearts  of  men  until  it  is  sealed  by  the  inner 
testimony  of  the  Spirit.'     '  This  fact,' 

Zwingli. 

says  Zwingli,"^  '  only  pious  mmds 
know ;  for  it  does  not  depend  on  the  disputa- 
tion of  man,  but  is  seated  most  firmly  in  men's 
souls.  It  is  an  experience ;  for  all  the  pious 
have  experienced  it.  It  is  not  a  doctrine ;  for 
we  see  that  very  learned  men  are  ignorant  of 
a  fact  so  very  salutary.  It  is  therefore  in  vain 
that  we  are  so  anxious  for  some  because  they 
will  not  receive  the  Word ;  but  it  will  not  be 
in  vain  that  we  should  anxiously  pray  God  that 
He  may  deign  to  bestow  the  grace  of  His  Spirit 
and  draw  them  to  the  recognition  of  His  Word.' 

Application         ^uch  is   the  Argument   from   Ex- 
tothe  perience :    and   now  see  how  it  bears 

evangelic  -l  ' 

problem:        upon  the  qucstion   of  the  historicity 
of  the  evangelic  records. 

They  profess  to  depict  Jesus  as  He  appeared 
in  the  days  of  His  flesh ;   but  this  is  not  their 

*  De  Vera  et  Falsa  Religione  Commentarius  :  De  Ecclesia. 


THE  EVIDENCE   OF  EXPERIENCE     107 

whole  claim.  For  Jesus  is  not  merely  a  historic 
personage.  He  is  the  Living  Lord,  'the  same 
yesterday  and  to-day,  yea  and  for  ever';*  and 
His  promise  to  His  disciples  ere  He 

the  Evangelic 

left   the   world   was   that    He   would  Jesus  tue 

•  1       1  111  1  Living  Lord ; 

be  '  with  them  all  the  days  even  unto 
the  consummation  of  the  age.'t  As  He  was 
manifested  in  the  days  of  His  flesh,  so  is  He 
evermore ;  and  we  know  Him  as  He  is  by  the 
memory  of  His  manifestation.  And  the  Gospels 
are  the  record  of  that  manifestation :  we  know 
it  only  through  them.  Hence  it  follows  that, 
if  they  be  a  true  record,  they  must  bring  us  into 
present  and  personal  contact  with  the  Living 
and  Eternal  Lord.  And  this  is  the  ultimate 
and  decisive  test  of  their  truth  :  Do  they  fulfil 
that  function  ?  If  they  do,  then  their  historicity 
is  attested  by  experience. 

And  they  do.     In  a  letter  from  Paris  in  1826 
Erskine  of  Linlathen  writes  of  his  meeting  with 
a   little   company   of  French   Protes-  present 
tants.     '  The  characteristic  of  all  these  '°l*',?,f  S. 

Him  tnrougn 

persecuted    Christians   is   reality,  and  t^e Gospels; 
oh  reality  is  everything !     They  have  found  re- 
ligion to  be  a  thing  worth  suffering  for,  they  have 

*  Heb.  xiii.  8.  t  Matt,  xxviii.  20. 


108      THE  EVIDENCE   OF  EXPERIENCE 

found  it  a  support  under  suffering ;  and  they 
speak  of  it  to  others,  not  as  of  a  logical  system, 
but  as  of  a  new  life,  a  heavenly  strength,  a  very 
present  help  in  trouble,  and  a  medicine  and  a 
remedy  for  every  e\dl  under  the  sun.'  Have  we 
not  all  met  believers  of  this  sort  ? — people  who 
could  say  with  St.  Paul  :*  '  I  have  been  crucified 
with  Christ ;  yet  I  live ;  and  yet  no  longer  I, 
but  Christ  liveth  in  me :  and  that  life  which 
I  now  live  in  the  flesh  I  live  in  faith,  the  faith 
which  is  in  the  Son  of  God,  who  loved  me,  and 
gave  Himself  up  for  me.'  For  such  Ciirist  is  an 
experience.  They  '  know  Him  whom  they  have 
believed,'t  and  they  need  no  other  evidence. 
It  chanced  to  me  once  to  witness  an  encounter 
between  a  sceptical  physician  and  a  young 
woman,  poorly  educated  but  taught  of  God. 
Regardless  of  the  dictates  of  chivalry,  he  plied 
her  with  his  infidel  arguments.  Her  feeble 
attempts  to  answer  these  only  exposed  her  to 
his  mockery,  and  at  last  her  eyes  filled,  and  she 
said  :  '  Well,  doctor,  I  cannot  argue  with  you  ; 
but  there  is  one  thing  I  am  sure  of:  I  have 
found  peace.  Have  you  ? '  His  face  fell,  and 
he   kept   silence    and    troubled    her    no    more. 

*  Gal.  ii.  20.  f  2  Tim.  i.  12. 


THE  EVIDENCE   OF  EXPERIENCE      109 

Faith  is  impregnable  when  it  is  fortified  by 
experience.  To  one  who  has  passed  through 
the  Gospels  into  fellowship  with  the  Living 
Saviour  of  whom  they  testify,  it  matters  nothing 
though  criticism  denies  their  historicity.  He 
believes  in  them  because  he  believes  in  Jesus ; 
and  he  believes  in  Jesus  because  he  knows  Him. 

'  Whoso  hath  felt  the  Spirit  of  the  Highest 

Cannot  confound  nor  doubt  him  nor  deny  : 
Yea  with  one  voice,   oh  world,  tho'  thou  deniest, 
Stand  thou  on  that  side,  for  on  this  am  I.' 

Experience  is  personal  and  individual,  yet 
it  carries  conviction  even  to  those  who  are 
strangers  to  it.     It  was  an  alien  ex- 

.  .  force  of  alien 

perience,    which    he    had    never    felt  experience: 
and  could  not  understand,  that   first  case  of 
arrested  John  Bunyan  and  never  let 
him  go.     He  has  told  the  story  in  his  immortal 
autobiography  :   '  Upon  a  day  the  good   provi- 
dence  of  God   called   me  to  Bedford  to  work 
at  my  calling,  and  in  one  of  the  streets  of  that 
town  I  came  where   there   were   three  or  four 
poor  women  sitting  at  a  door  in  the  sun,  talking 
about  the  things  of  God  ;  and  being  now  willing 
to  hear   their   discourse,    I   drew  near  to   hear 
what  they  said,  for  I  was  now  a  brisk  talker  in 


110     THE   EVIDENCE   OF  EXPERIENCE 

matters  of  religion  :  but  they  were  far  above 
my  reach.  Their  talk  was  about  a  new  birth, 
the  work  of  God  in  their  hearts,  as  also  how 
they  were  convinced  of  their  miserable  state  by 
nature.  They  talked  how  God  had  visited 
their  souls  with  his  love  in  the  Lord  Jesus, 
and  with  what  words  and  promises  they  had 
been  refreshed,  comforted,  and  supported  against 
the  temptations  of  the  devil.  .  .  .  And  me- 
thought  they  spake  with  such  pleasantness  of 
Scripture  language,  and  with  such  an  appear- 
ance of  grace  in  all  they  said,  that  they  were 
to  me  as  if  they  had  found  a  new  world — as 
if  they  were  a  people  that  dwelt  alone,  and 
were  not  to  be  reckoned  among  their  neigh- 
bours.' The  memory  haunted  him,  and  he 
could  never  rest  until  he  had  discovered  the 
blessed  secret  and  made  the  experience  his 
own. 

There  is  profound  truth  in  Neander's  maxim 
that  '  it  is  the  heart  that  makes  the  theologian,' 
Experience  pectus  est  quod  tlieologum  facit.  A 
^atenT^^^  theologian  should  always  be  a  preacher 
cntioa.  iQQ    Experience  is  an  essential  materia 

critica  ;  and  this  is,  to  my  mind,  the  fatal  defect 
of  much  that  is  written  in  these  days,  that  it  is 


THE  EVIDENCE   OF   EXPERIENCE     111 

purely  academic  and  has  never  been  submitted 
to  the  test  of  experience.  You  will  realise  this 
when  you  enter  the  blessed  service  of  the  Holy 
Ministry,  and  are  summoned  to  a  chamber 
where  the  shadow  of  death  is  falling.  The 
fitting  words  will  not  be  lacking  ;  they  will  rise 
unbidden  to  your  lips — those  immortal  words 
which,  according  to  the  Fourth  Gospel,  our 
Lord  spoke  to  His  disciples  when  He  was 
bidding  them  farewell  in  the  Upper  Room : 
'  Let  not  your  heart  be  troubled.  In  My 
Father's  house  are  many  mansions  ;  if  it  were 
not  so,  I  would  have  told  you :  I  go  to  prepare 
a  place  for  you.  And  if  I  go  and  prepare  a 
place  for  you,  I  will  come  again,  and  receive  you 
unto  Myself,  that  where  I  am,  there  ye  may  be 
also.  Peace  I  leave  with  you,  My  peace  I  give 
unto  you :  not  as  the  world  giveth,  give  I  unto 
you.  Let  not  your  heart  be  troubled,  neither 
let  it  be  afraid.'  *  And  as  you  repeat  them,  you 
will  see  the  dying  lips  murmuring  them  with 
you,  and  a  Hght,  like  the  dawning  of  the  glory 
which  shall  be  revealed,  breaking  on  the  wasted 
face.  In  presence  of  such  an  experience  much 
that  has  been  written  on  the  Johannine  problem 

*  John  xiv.  1-3,  27. 


112     THE  EVIDENCE  OF  EXPERIENCE 

will  appear  to  you  strangely  futile.  You  will 
be  very  sure  that,  whatever  criticism  may  say, 
those  are  the  words  of  Jesus,  as  strong  and 
fragrant  at  this  hour  as  when  they  fell  from 
His  lips  into  the  troubled  hearts  of  the  Eleven 
in  the  Upper  Room. 

It  may,  however,  be  objected  that  all  this  is 

nothing   more   than  illusion.      You    remember 

the    poet's    picture     of    the    hapless 

Not  iUusion.  '^  ^  ^ 

maiden  wiiose  lover  was  lost  at  sea, 
and  who  would  not  believe  it  but  haunted  the 
cliff,  watching  for  his  Hngering  sail  on  the  far 
horizon  and,  as  each  night  fell,  still  hoping  for 
the  morrow.  Her  faith  was  an  illusion,  benign 
yet  unsubstantial. 

'  Mercy  gave,  to  charm  the  sense  of  woe, 
Ideal  peace,  that  Truth  could  ne'er  bestow.' 

And  the  thought  of  Jesus  has  indeed  brought 
peace  to  many  a  troubled  heart,  but  may  it 
not  be  an  'ideal  peace,'  born  of  a  beneficent 
illusion  ? 

'While  we  believed,  on  earth  he  went. 
And  open  stood  his  grave. 
Men  call'd  from  chamber,  church,  and  tent ; 
And  Christ  was  by  to  save. 


THE  EVIDENCE  OF  EXPERIENCE     113 

'  Now  he  is  dead  I     Far  hence  he  lies 
In  the  lorn  Syrian  town  ; 
And  on  his  grave,  with  shining  eyes, 
The  Syrian  stars  look  down.' 

Carry  the  argument  a  little  farther.     An  ideal 
can  do  much.     It  can  inspire  wonder,  ^he  object 
admiration,  desire,  worship.    But  there  °^  ^°^®  • 
is   an   emotion,  deeper,  warmer,  and  ^o*  an  ideal, 
sweeter,   which  no   ideal   can   stir.      An    ideal 
cannot  enkindle  love. 

The  only  possible  object  of  love  is  a  person. 
And  what   manner   of  person  ?     Not   an   ideal 
person.     Is   not   this   taught   by   the 
Greek    fable    of    Pygmalion  ?       His  person,  real, 
Galatea   was    indeed   his    own    crea-    ^^^'^®^'^* 
tion,  but  it  was  not  until  his  ideal  took  visible 
shape  that  it  enkindled  love  in  his  heart,  and 
the  responsive  marble  breathed  and  moved.     It 
is  impossible  to  love  an  ideal  person  ;  nor  is  it 
possible  to  love  one  who,  though  real,  is  merely 
historic.      We  cannot  love  Moses  or  Isaiah  or 
St.  Paul   or  St.  Augustine   or   Martin   Luther 
or  John  Knox  or  Sir  Walter  Scott.     Nor  can 
we  love  even  a  contemporary  personage  whom 
we    know    only    afar    off.      A    king    has    the 
reverence     and    loyalty    of    his    subjects,    but 

The  Historic  Jesus  1 6 


114     THE  EVIDENCE   OF  EXPERIENCE 

it  is  his  kinsfolk  and  friends  that  love 
him. 

The  object  of  love,  then,  is  a  person,  and  a 
person  who  is  real,  living,  and  near.  There  is 
The  love  of  Only  One  '  whom  not  having  seen  we 
Jesus:  love.'  *     And   there  is  no  love  com- 

parable to  the  love  which  He  has  inspired  in 
the  breasts  of  the  children  of  men.  Think  of 
St.  Francis  St.  Francis  of  Assisi.  It  was  a  vision 
of  Assisi,  q£  Jesus  that  transformed  him  ;  and 
it  is  told  how  '  from  that  hour  his  heart  was 
wounded  and  melted  at  the  remembrance  of 
St.  Thomas  ^^^^  Lord's  Passiou.'  t  Think  of  St. 
Aquinas.  Thomas  Aquiuas.  '  Thou  hast  written 
well  of  Me,  Thomas,'  said  the  voice  from  the 
Crucifix  as  he  bowed  in  prayer :  '  what  recom- 
st  Bernard  pcnsc  dost  thou  dcsirc  ? '  '  None 
of  ciairvaux.  other,'  auswcrcd  the  saint,  '  than 
Thyself,  O  Lord.'  Think  of  St.  Bernard  of 
Ciairvaux : 

'Jesus,  the  very  thought  of  Thee 
With  sweetness  fills  my  breast ; 
But  sweeter  far  Thy  face  to  see, 
And  in  Thy  presence  rest. 

*  1  Peter  i.  8. 

t  '  Ab  ilia  hora  vxilneratum  et  liquefactum  est  cor  ejus  ad 
memoriam  Dominicse  passionis.' 


THE  EVIDENCE  OF  EXPERIENCE     115 

'  O  Hope  of  every  contrite  heart, 

O  Joy  of  all  the  meek, 
To  those  who  fall  how  kind  Thou  art ! 
How  good  to  those  who  seek ! 

'  But  what  to  those  who  find  ?     Ah  !  this 

Nor  tongue  nor  pen  can  show  ; 
The  love  of  Jesus  what  it  is 

None  but  His  loved  ones  know.'  * 

Jesus,  Thou  Joy  of  loving  hearts, 

Tliou  Fount  of  Life,  Thou  Light  of  men, 

From  the  best  bliss  that  earth  imparts 
We  turn  unfilled  to  Thee  again,  t 


*       '  Jesu  dulcis  memoria 
Dans  vera  cordi  gaudia : 
Sed  sviper  mel  et  omnia 
Ejus  dulcis  praesentia. 

'Jesu  spes  poenitentibus, 
Quam  plus  es  petentibus, 
Quam  bonus  te  quserentibus, 
Sed  quid  invenientibus  ? 

'  Nee  lingua  valet  dicere. 
Nee  litera  exprimere  : 
Expertus  potest  credere 
Quid  sit  Jesum  diligere.' 

t       '  Jesu  dulcedo  cordium, 
Fons  vivus,  lumen  mentium, 
Excedens  omne  gaudiimi, 
Et  omne  desideriimi. 


116     THE  EVIDENCE   OF  EXPERIENCE 

'  Our  restless  spirits  yearn  for  Thee, 

Where'er  our  changeful  lot  is  cast, — 
Glad  when  Thy  gracious  smile  we  see, 

Blest  when  our  faith  can  hold  Thee  fast.'* 


RuTherfurd,       Thiiik  of  Samucl  Rutherfurd 


'  Oh !  Christ  He  is  the  fountain, 

The  deep  sweet  well  of  love  ! 
The  streams  on  earth  I've  tasted, 

More  deep  I'll  drink  above. 
There  to  an  ocean  fulness 

His  mercy  doth  expand. 
And  glory,  glory  dwelleth 

In  Immanuel's  land.' 

jonn  Newton.     Thiiik  of  John  Newton  : 

'  How  sweet  the  name  of  Jesus  sounds 

In  a  believer's  ear  ! 
It  soothes  his  sorrows,  heals  his  wounds, 
And  drives  away  his  fear. 

'  It  makes  the  wounded  spirit  whole, 
Ajid  calms  the  troubled  breast ; 
'Tis  manna  to  the  hungry  soul, 
And  to  the  weary  rest.' 


'  Quocunque  loco  fuero, 
Mecum  Jesum  desidero  : 
Qiiam  laetus  cum  invenero  ? 
Quam  felix  cum  tenuero?' 


THE  EVIDENCE   OF  EXPERIENCE      117 

Was  there  ever  a  love  like  this — this  passion 
of  desire,  this  ecstasy  of  devotion  ?  And  its 
object  is  Jesus — the  Evangelic  Jesus, 

Conclusion. 

for  He  is  the  only  Jesus  whom  we 
know.  See,  then,  what  follows.  The  Evan- 
gelic Jesus  cannot  be  a  mere  ideal ;  for  an 
ideal  cannot  enkindle  love.  He  is  a  historic 
person,  and  He  lived  among  men  as  the 
Evangelists  have  portrayed  Him.  But  He 
is  more  than  that.  It  is  impossible  to  love 
one  who  is  remote  from  us,  and  has  never 
been  in  present  and  personal  contact  with 
us ;  and  therefore  Jesus  is  more  than  a 
historic  person  who  dwelt  in  Palestine  long 
ago.  He  is  the  Living  Lord,  the  Eternal 
Saviour,  who  was  manifested,  according  to 
the  Scriptures,  in  the  days  of  His  flesh 
and  still,  according  to  His  promise,  visits 
the  souls  that  put  their  trust  in  Him  and 
makes  His  abode  with  them. 

Here  lies  the  supreme  and  incontrovertible 
evidence  of  the  historicity  of  the  Gospels.  The 
final  decision  rests  not  with  the  critics 

The  final 

but  with  the  saints  ;  and  their  verdict  verdict  of 
is  unanimous  and  unfaltering.     They 
know  the  Divine  Original,  and  they  attest  the 
faithfulness  of  the  portrait. 


A  LATIN   HYMN 

The  Sighs  of  St.  Aloysius 

O  Christ,  Love's  Victim,  hanging  high 

Upon  the  cruel  Tree, 
What  worthy  recompense  can  I 

Make,  mine  own  Christ,  to  Tliee? 

All  my  life's  blood  if  I  should  spill 

A  thousand  times  for  Tliee, 
Ah,  'twere  too  small  a  quittance  still 

For  all  Thy  love  to  me. 

My  sweat  and  labour  from  this  day, 

My  sole  life  let  it  be, 
To  love  Thee  aye  the  best  I  may, 

And  die  for  love  of  Thee. 


INDEXES 


The  Historic  Jesus  1 7 


NAMES  AND  SUBJECTS 


PAGE 

Alcott        

...     70 

Aloysius      

..  119 

Anselm        

..  101 

ApoUonius  of  Tyana 

..54  ff. 

Arabic  Gospel  of  Infancy       59 

Arnold,  Edwin 

..     38 

Matthew  ...        84,  112 

Arrian         

..     81 

Augustine 

3,101 

Bernard  of  Clairvaux 

..  114 

Blount        

..     56 

Brahmans  ... 

..     55 

Browning    ... 

14,92 

Bruce          

73,92 

Bunyan       76,  109 

Cabbalists 

..     38 

Caesar          

..     81 

Calvin          

..  105 

Campbell,  Thomas 

..  112 

Canonicity  (Rabbinical) 

..     42 

Carlyle 


4,  70,  102 


PAGE 

Celsus  45,  46,  68 

Childhood  of  Jesus  (apocry- 
phal)         36fif. 

Chrysostom  ...  44,  97 

Cicero  94 

Class  distinctions 75flf. 

Clement  of  Alexandria     ...     88 

Coleridge     19,  72,  104 

Constantinople,  Creed  of...     11 
Contemporary   opinion, 
Jesus  and  ...         ...81  ff. 


Damis          

55,  57 

"  Defile  the  hands  " 

...     42 

Demonax 

..47  ff. 

Demoniac 

..     58 

Diogenes     

..     98 

Diogenes  Laertius  49,  76, 

77,98 

Doketism 

..35  ff. 

Doubt         

103  f. 

Encyclopcedia  BibUca 

..       9 

Erskine  of  Linlathen 

..  107 

123 


124 

INDEXES 

PAGE 

PAGE 

Eusebius     

29,56 

Jealousy,  divine   ... 

...     41 

EvrpaTreXia     ... 

...     49 

Jewish  exclusiveness 

...78f. 

Evangelium  Thomce 

...35flf. 

Johnson,  Dr. 

...  102 

Experience,  argument  from  97  ff. 

Juan  de  Avila 

...     67 

Judas,  legend  of     ... 

...     59 

Fasting      

...     73 

Julia  Domna 

...     55 

Francis  of  Assisi    ... 

...  114 

Justin  Martyr 
Juvenal 

29,54 
...     79 

Galilee      

Gibbon 

...     80 
20,48 

Keble 

Keim            

Kutter         

...     53 
1  n 

God,  created  in  man's 
Gospels  and  types  ( 

image     87 
Df  na- 

lU 
...     74 

tionality  ... 
Green,  T.  H. 
Gregory       

...     79 
...13  ff. 
...     69 

Lacey  the  Prophet 

Lactantius 

Lightfoot,  J.  B. 

...     99 

56,77 
...     18 

Love  of  Jesus 

114  ff. 

Heeodotus 
Hierocles     

...     41 

...     56 

only  object  of 
Lucian        

...  113 

...     47 

Holiness 

...     69 

Holt,  Chief-Justice 

...     99 

Macaulay 

...     19 

Homo  tnensura 

...     98 

Marcosians 

...     39 

Hoogstraten 

...  102 

Marcus  Antoninus... 

...     49 

Horace        

...     35 

Martensen 

...     12 

Hunter,  John 

...  101 

Mary            

...31f. 

Hutton        

...     89 

McConneU 

fii)5iv  dyav    ... 

...     84 
...     49 

Ignatius     

...     96 

Messiah,  a  miracle-worker      40 

Illusion  and  faith  ... 

...  112 

Messianic  expectation 

...       6 

Immortality 

...     92 

Mill,  J.  S 

...     86 

Inspiration... 

...     90 

Miracles      

...     92 

Intuition  and  reason 

...93f. 

a  test  of  Messiah- 

Irenseus       

80,  31,  39 

ship 

...40  ff. 

INDEXES 


125 


Mofifatt        

Myers,  F.  W.  H.    ... 

Nationality 

Neander      

Neo-Pythagoreanism 
Newton,  John 


PAGE 

...  7 
...  109 

...78  ff. 
...  110 
...  54 
...  116 


Origen        ...  28,  31,  45,  46,  68 

Pagan    attitude   to   Chris- 
tianity    ...         ...         ...     46 

Pascal         80 

Paul  and  Christ     87  f. 

Peter,  Gospel  according  to     28 

Pfleiderer 87 

Pharisees 76 

Philalethes 56 

Philostratus  55 

Plato  77,  82,  98 

Plutarch      77 

Pragmatism  ...         ...  100 

Prayer  of  Apollonius         ...     58 

Protagoras 98 

ProtevangeUum  Jacobi   ...28 ff. 
Pygmalion 113 

Eaising  from  the  dead     ...     57 

Religion      19,  48 

Eembrandt 102 

Eenan  67,  80 

Romanes     ...       82,  93,  99,  102 

Eothe  90 

Rutherfurd 116 


PAGE 

Saints,  testimony  of  the  ...  117 

Schmiedel 9ff. 

Science  and  the  Gospel    ...  84  f. 

Scott  35 

Sect 77  f. 

Serapion      ...     29 

Shakspeare ...     24 

Sin 67 

Sinlessness  of  Jesus    65  ff.,  92  f. 
"  Sinners  "  ...         ...         ...     75 

Smith,  W.  C 62 

W.  R 42 

Socrates      49,  98 

Solon  41 

Strauss        6 

Suidas         47 

Supernatural,   difficulty  of 
imagining  the     35 

Tacitus       78 

Taxgatherers  78 

Tennyson 20 

Testimonium    Sjnritus 

Sancti      105  f. 

Thales         77 

Theodoret 87 

Thomas  Aquinas 114 

Thorwaldsen  59 

Tides  ...     81 

Tischendorf  30 

Tolstoy        65 

Tradition,  Evangelic        ...  27  f. 
Tyana  55 


126 

INDEXES 

PAGE 

Universality  of  Jesus 

...     80 

Women 
Words  of  Jesus 

Virgin  Birth 

...32f. 

Virginity  of  Mary  ... 

...     32 

Xenophanbs 

Ward,  Mrs.  Humphry 

...     13 

Zahn 

Weizsacker... 

...     11 

Zealots 

White  Lady  of  Avenel 

...     35 

Zeno 

Whittier      

...     16 

Zwingli 

pagb 
.76f. 
73fif. 

.     87 

.  30 
.  78 
.  99 
.  106 


II 


PASSAGES   OF  SCRIPTURE 


PAGE 

PAGE 

Exodus  xix.  21-24... 

..     41 

St. 

Matthew  xxi.  34-38    . 

..       70 

2  Samuel  vi.  6-11  ... 

..     42 

XXV.  31,  32  . 

..     71 

Isaiah  xxxii.  3,  4    ... 

..       6 

xxvii.  29-31. 

..     53 

XXXV.  5,  6    ... 

..       6 

xxvii.  55,  56. 

..     77 

xlii.  7 

..       6 

xxviii.  20 

..  107 

liii.  3 

..     52 

St. 

Mart 

.  iii.  21      ... 

..     10 

Haggai  ii.  7 

..     80 

v.  30       ... 

..     74 

St.  Matthew  i.  21  ... 

..     30 

vi.  5,  6    ... 

..     10 

V.  21-30       . 

..     67 

viii.  12    ... 

..     10 

viii.  20 

..     52 

viii.  14-21 

..     10 

ix.  12 

..     76 

ix.  29      ... 

..     73 

X.  37... 

..     71 

X.  17,  18... 

..       9 

x.  40... 

..    70 

xi.  13      ... 

..     66 

xi.  5  ... 

6,11 

xiii.  32    ... 

10,66 

xi.  19 

..     75 

XV.  34     ... 

..     10 

xi.  28,  29      . 

..    71 

XV.  40,  41 

..     77 

xii.  22-24     . 

..     42 

St. 

Luke 

i.  1-4       ... 

..     27 

xii.  31,  32    . 

..       9 

i.  35 

..     30 

xii.  40 

..    74 

ii.  41-51... 

..     27 

xii.  42 

..     51 

ii.  51,  52... 

..     37 

xiii.  16,  17    . 

..    71 

vii.  11-17 

..     57 

xvii.  21 

..    73 

vii.  21,  22 

..       6 

XX.  28 

..    71 

vii.  36-50 

..     76 

127 


128 

INDEXES 

PAGE 

PAGE 

St.  Luke  viii.  2      ... 

..     77 

Acts  XXV.  24 

..     10 

viii.  46     ... 

..     74 

Romans  ix.  1-8 

..    79 

xi.  29,  30 

..     74 

ix.  5 

..    80 

xi.  37-43... 

..     76 

1  Corinthians  i.  23... 

..     45 

xiv.  1-24... 

..     76 

iii.  11 

..     98 

xiv.  26     ... 

..     72 

XV.  3-8 

..     17 

XV.  2 

..     69 

2  Corinthians  v.  13 

..     10 

xxiii.  48,  49 

..     77 

V.  16 

..     16 

xxiv.  27  ... 

..     71 

Galatians  ii.  20 

..  108 

St.  John  i.  1-18     ... 

..     18 

Ephesians  v.  4 

..     49 

i.  43-51  ... 

..     63 

PhiUppians  iii.  4-7 

..     79 

ii.  11 

..     37 

1  Thessalonians  ii.  15 

..     78 

iv.  27 

..     77 

1  Timothy  iv.  7     . 

..     28 

V.  18 

..     70 

vi.  3,4. 

..     28 

vi.  63       ... 

..     74 

2  Timothy  i.  12     . 

..  108 

vii.  16,  17 

..  100 

i.  14      . 

..     28 

viii.  46     ... 

..     66 

Hebrews  i.  2 

..     70 

X.  20 

..     73 

ii.  17       . 

..     40 

xiv.  1-3,  27 

..  Ill 

iv.  15      . 

..     66 

xvii.  4,  13 

..     67 

xiii.  8 

..  107 

XX.  13      ... 

..       2 

1  Peter  i.  8... 

..  114 

XX.  25      ... 

..     32 

1  John  i.  1-3 

..     18 

Acts  XV.  5 

..     76 

UNWIN  BEOTHEES,  LIMITED,  THE  GEESHAM  PEESS,  WOKING  AND  LONDON. 


Date  Due 


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